UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


3  1822022366330 

Uj 


ORATORY 


REV.  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 

CONTAINING  ALSO 
THE 

WHITE  SUNLIGHT  OF  POTENT  WORDS 

BY 

REV.  JOHN  S.  MACINTOSH,  D.  D. 

AND 

THE  PLACE  OF  THE  IMAGINATION  IN  THE  ART  OF 
EXPRESSION 

BY 

REV.  A.  J.  F.  BEHRENDS,  D.  D. 


Philadelphia 

The  Perm  Publishing  Company 
1892 


COPYRIGHT,  1892,  BY  THE  PENN  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


CONTENTS 


PAG  8 

Oratory 7 

The  White  Sunlight  of  Potent  Words     ...  51 
The  Place  of  the  Imagination  in  the  Art  of 
Expression 73 


3(15 


ORATORY 


AN  ORATION 


REV.  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 


DELIVERED   BEFORE  THB 


NATIONAL  SCHOOL  OF  ELOCUTION  AND  ORATORY  UPON  THB  OCCASION 
OF  ITS  THIRD  ANNUAL  COMMENCEMENT,  HELB  IN  THB  AMERI- 
CAN ACADEMY  OF  Music,  PHILADELPHIA,  MAY  29,  1876 


ORATION 

BY 

REV.  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


I  congratulate  myself,  always,  for  the 
privilege  of  appearing  before  a  Philadel- 
phia audience — intelligent,  sympathetic, 
appreciative  ;  but  never  more  than  now, 
when  the  audience  is  assembled  both  to 
behold,  and  to  bear  witness  to,  one  of  the 
noblest  institutions  that  could  be  estab- 
lished in  your  midst  ;  one  of  the  most 
needed  ;  and  one  which  I  have  reason  to 
believe  has  been  established  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  highest  motives,  not  only 
of  patriotism  in  education,  but  of  religion 

7 


8 

itself.  This  city — eminent  in  many  re- 
spects for  its  institutions,  and  for  its 
various  collections  which  make  civiliza- 
tion so  honorable — I  congratulate,  that 
now,  at  last,  it  has  established  a  school  of 
oratory  in  this  central  position,  equidis- 
tant from  the  South,  from  the  West,  and 
from  the  North,  as  a  fitting  centre  from 
which  should  go  out  influences  that  shall 
exalt,  if  not  regenerate,  public  sentiment 
on  the  subject  of  oratory  ;  for,  while 
progress  has  been  made,  and  is  making, 
in  the  training  of  men  for  public  speak- 
ing, I  think  I  may  say  that,  relative  to 
the  exertions  that  are  put  forth  in  other 
departments  of  education,  this  subject  is 
behind  almost  all  others.  Training  in 
this  department  is  the  great  want  of  our 
day ;  for  we  are  living  in  a  land  whose 
genius,  whose  history,  whose  institutions, 
whose  people,  eminently  demand  oratory. 


There  is  nothing  that  draws  men  more 
quickly  to  any  centre  than  the  hope  of 
hearing  important  subjects  wisely  dis- 
cussed with  full  fervor  of  manhood ;  and 
that  is  oratory — truth  bearing  upon  con- 
duct, and  character  set  home  by  the  living 
force  of  the  full  man.  And  nowhere,  in 
the  field,  in  the  forum,  in  the  pulpit,  or 
in  schools,  is  there  found  to  be  a  living 
voice  that  informs  of  beauty,  traces  rug- 
ged truth,  and  gives  force  and  energy  to 
its  utterance,  that  people  do  not  crowd 
and  throng  there. 

We  have  demonstrations  enough,  for- 
tunately, to  show  that  truth  alone  is  not 
sufficient ;  for  truth  is  the  arrow,  but 
man  is  the  bow  that  sends  it  home. 
There  be  many  men  who  are  the  light 
of  the  pulpit,  whose  thought  is  profound, 
whose  learning  is  universal,  but  whose 
offices  are  unspeakably  dull.  They  do 


IO 


make  known  the  truth  ;  but  without  fer- 
vor, without  grace,  without  beauty,  with- 
out inspiration  ;  and  discourse  upon  dis- 
course would  fitly  be  called  the  funeral 
of  important  subjects  ! 

Nowhere  else  is  there  to  be  so  large  a 
disclosure  of  what  is  possible  from  man 
acting  upon  men,  as  in  oratory.  In 
ancient  times,  and  in  other  lands,  cir- 
cumstances more  or  less  propitious  devel- 
oped the  force  of  eloquence  in  special 
instances,  or  among  particular  classes. 
But  consider  the  nature  of  our  own  in- 
stitutions. Consider  that  nothing  can 
live  in  our  midst  until  it  has  accepted 
its  mission  of  service  to  the  whole  people. 

Now  and  then,  men,  mistaking  good 
sense,  speak  contemptuously  of  populariz- 
ing learning,  and  of  popularizing  science; 
but  popular  intelligence  is  that  atmos- 
phere in  which  all  high  scientific  truth 


II 


and  research,  and  all  learning,  in  its 
amplest  extent,  are,  by  advance  in  civili- 
zation, to  find  their  nourishment  and 
stimulation  ;  and  throughout  our  land 
the  people  demand  to  know  what  are  the 
principles  of  government,  what  is  the 
procedure  of  courts,  what  is  the  best 
thought  in  regard  to  national  policy, 
what  are  the  ripening  thoughts  respecting 
the  reformations  of  the  times,  what  is 
social  truth,  what  is  civil  truth,  and  what 
is  divine  truth.  These  things  are  dis- 
cussed in  the  cabin,  in  the  field,  in  the 
court-house,  in  the  legislative  hall,  every- 
where, throughout  forty  or  fifty  millions 
of  people.  This  is  in  accordance  with 
the  nature  of  our  institutions  and  our 
customs  ;  and  to  the  living  voice  more 
largely  than  to  any  other  source  are  we 
indebted  for  the  popularization  of  learn- 
ing and  knowledge,  and  for  motive  force, 


12 

which  the  printed  page  can  scarcely  give 
in  any  adequate  measure. 

Yet,  though  this  is  in  accordance  with 
the  necessity  of  our  times,  our  institu- 
tions and  our  customs,  I  think  that 
oratory,  with  the  exception  of  here  and 
there  an  instance  which  is  supposed  to  be 
natural,  is  looked  upon,  if  not  with  con- 
tempt, at  least  with  discredit,  as  a  thing 
artificial ;  as  a  mere  science  of  ornamen- 
tation ;  as  a  method  fit  for  actors  who  are 
not  supposed  to  express  their  own  senti- 
ments, but  unfit  for  a  living  man  who 
has  earnestness  and  sincerity  and  pur- 
pose. 

Still,  on  the  other  hand,  I  hold  that 
oratory  has  this  test  and  mark  of  divine 
providence,  in  that  God,  when  He  makes 
things  perfect,  signifies  that  He  is  done 
by  throwing  over  them  the  robe  of  beauty; 
for  beauty  is  the  divine  thought  of  excel- 


13 

lence.  All  things,  growing  in  their 
earlier  stages,  are  rude.  All  of  them  are 
in  vigorous  strength,  it  may  be ;  but  not 
until  the  blossom  conies,  and  the  fruit 
hangs  pendant,  has  the  vine  evinced  for 
what  it  was  made.  God  is  a  God  of 
beauty ;  and  beauty  is  everywhere  the 
final  process.  When  things  have  come 
to  that,  they  have  touched  their  limit. 

Now,  a  living  force  that  brings  to  itself 
all  the  resources  of  imagination,  all  the 
inspirations  of  feeling,  all  that  is  influen- 
tial in  body,  in  voice,  in  eye,  in  gesture, 
in  posture,  in  the  whole  animated  man,  is 
in  strict  analogy  with  the  divine  thought 
and  the  divine  arrangement ;  and  there  is 
no  misconstruction  more  utterly  untrue 
and  fatal  than  this :  that  oratory  is  an 
artificial  thing,  which  deals  with  baubles 
and  trifles,  for  the  sake  of  making  bubbles 
of  pleasure  for  transient  effect  on  mer- 


curial  audiences.  So  far  from  that,  it  is 
the  consecration  of  the  whole  man  to  the 
noblest  purposes  to  which  one  can  address 
himself — the  education  and  inspiration  of 
his  fellow-men  by  all  that  there  is  in 
learning,  by  all  that  there  is  in  thought, 
by  all  that  there  is  in  feeling,  by  all 
that  there  is  in  all  of  them,  sent  home 
through  the  channels  of  taste  and  of 
beauty.  And  so  regarded,  oratory  should 
take  its  place  among  the  highest  depart- 
ments of  education. 

I  have  said  that  it  is  disregarded 
largely ;  so  it  is  ;  and  one  of  the  fruits  of 
this  disregard  is  that  men  fill  all  the 
places  of  power — how  ?  With  force  mis- 
directed ;  with  energy  not  half  so  fruitful 
as  it  might  be ;  with  sincerity  that  knows 
not  how  to  spread  its  wings  and  fly.  I 
think  that  if  you  were  to  trace  and  to 
analyze  the  methods  which  prevail  in  all 


the  departments  of  society,  you  would 
find  in  no  other  such  contempt  of  culture, 
and  in  no  other  such  punishment  of  this 
contempt. 

May  I  speak  of  my  own  profession, 
from  a  life-long  acquaintance — from  now 
forty  years  of  public  life  and  knowledge 
and  observation  ?  May  I  say,  without 
being  supposed  to  arrogate  anything  to 
my  own  profession,  that  I  know  of  no 
nobler  body  of  men,  of  more  various  ac- 
complishments, of  more  honesty,  of  more 
self-sacrifice,  and  of  more  sincerity,  than 
the  clergymen  of  America?  And  yet, 
with  exceptional  cases,  here  and  there,  I 
cannot  say  that  the  profession  represents 
eminence :  I  mean  eminence,  not  in  elo- 
quence, but  in  oratory.  I  bear  them  wit- 
.  ness  that  they  mean  well ;  I  bear  them 
witness  that  in  multitudes  of  cases  they 
are  grotesque ;  that  in  multitudes  of  other 


i6 

cases  they  are  awkward ;  and  that  in 
multitudes  still  greater  they  are  dull. 
They  are  living  witnesses  to  show  how 
much  can  be  done  by  men  that  are  in 
earnest  without  offices,  and  without  the 
adjuvants  of  imagination  and  of  taste,  by 
training;  and  they  are  living  witnesses 
also,  I  think,  of  how  much  is  left  undone 
to  make  truth  palatable,  and  to  make  men 
eager  to  hear  it  and  eager  to  receive  it,  by 
the  lack  of  that  very  training  which  they 
have  despised — or  neglected,  at  any  rate. 
Or,  shall  I  ask  you  to  scrutinize  the 
manner  and  the  methods  that  prevail  in 
our  courts — the  everlasting  monotone  and 
seesaw  ?  Shall  I  ask  you  to  look  at  the 
intensity  that  raises  itself  to  the  highest 
pitch  in  the  beginning,  and  that  then, 
running  in  a  screaming  monotone, 
wearies,  if  it  does  not  affright,  all  that 
hear  it  ? 


17 

Or,  shall  I  ask  you  to  consider  the  wild 
way  in  which  speaking  takes  place  in  our 
political  conflicts  throughout  the  country 
—the  bellowing  of  one,  the  shouting  of 
another,  the  grotesqueness  of  a  third,  and 
the  want  of  any  given  method,  or  any 
emotion,  in  almost  all  of  them. 

How  much  squandering  there  is  of  the 
voice  !  How  little  is  there  of  the  advan- 
tage that  may  come  from  conversational 
tones  !  How  seldom  does  a  man  dare  to 
acquit  himself  with  pathos  and  fervor  ! 
And  the  men  are  themselves  mechanical 
and  methodical  in  the  bad  way,  who  are 
most  afraid  of  the  artificial  training  that 
is  given  in  the  schools,  and  who  so  often 
show  by  the  fruit  of  their  labor  that  the 
want  of  oratory  is  the  want  of  education. 
How  remarkable  is  sweetness  of  voice 
in  the  mother,  in  the  father,  in  the  house- 
hold !  The  music  of  no  chorded  instru- 


i8 

ments  brought  together  is,  for  sweetness, 
like  the  music  of  familiar  affection  when 
spoken  by  brother  and  sister,  or  by  father 
and  mother. 

Conversation  itself  belongs  to  oratory. 
Where  is  there  a  wider,  a  more  ample 
field  for  the  impartation  of  pleasure  or 
knowledge  than  at  a  festive  dinner  ?  and 
how  often  do  we  find  that  when  men, 
having  well  eaten  and  drunken,  arise  to 
speak,  they  are  well  qualified  to  keep 
silence  and  utterly  disqualified  to  speak  ! 
How  rare  it  is  to  find  felicity  of  diction 
on  such  occasions  !  How  seldom  do  we 
see  men  who  are  educated  to  a  fine  sense 
of  what  is  fit  and  proper  at  gatherings  of 
this  kind !  How  many  111211  there  are 
who  are  weighty  in  argument,  who  have 
abundant  resources,  and  who  are  almost 
boundless  in  their  power  at  other  times 
and  in  other  places,  but  %vho  when  in 


19 

company  among  their  kind  are  exceed- 
ingly unapt  in  their  methods.  Having 
none  of  the  secret  instruments  by  which 
the  elements  of  nature  may  be  touched, 
having  no  skill  and  no  power  in  this 
direction,  they  stand  as  machines  before 
living,  sensitive  men.  A  man  may  be  as 
a  master  before  an  instrument ;  only  the 
instrument  is  dead  ;  and  he  has  the  living 
hand  ;  and  out  of  that  dead  instrument 
what  wondrous  harmony  springs  forth  at 
his  touch  !  And  if  you  can  electrify  an 
audience  by  the  power  of  a  living  man  on 
dead  things,  how  much  more  should  that 
audience  be  electrified  when  the  chords 
are  living  and  the  man  is  alive,  and  he 
knows  how  to  touch  them  with  divine 
inspiration  ! 

I  advocate,  therefore,  in  its  full  extent, 
and  for  every  reason  of  humanity,  of 
patriotism,  and  of  religion,  a  more 


20 

thorough  culture  of  oratory  ;  and  I  de- 
fine oratory  to  be  the  art  of  influencing 
conduct  with  the  truth  set  home  by  all 
the  resources  of  the  living  man.  Its  aim 
is  not  to  please  men,  but  to  build  them 
up  ;  and  the  pleasure  which  it  imparts  is 
one  of  the  methods  by  which  it  seeks  to 
do  this.  It  aims  to  get  access  to  men  by 
allaying  their  prejudices.  A  person  who, 
with  unwelcome  truths,  undertakes  to 
carry  them  to  men  who  do  not  want 
them,  but  who  need  them,  undertakes  a 
task  which  is  like  drawing  near  to  a 
fortress.  The  times  have  gone  by,  but 
you  remember  them,  when,  if  I  had 
spoken  here  on  certain  themes  belonging 
to  patriotism  which  now  are  our  glory,  I 
should  have  stood  before  you  as  before  so 
many  castles  locked  and  barred.  How 
unwelcome  was  the  truth  !  But  if  one 
had  the  art  of  making  the  truth  beautiful ; 


21 

if  one  had  the  art  of  coaxing  the  keeper 
of  the  gate  to  turn  the  key  and  let  the 
interloping  thought  come  in  ;  if  one  could 
by  persuasion  control  the  cerberus  of 
hatred,  of  anger,  of  envy,  of  jealousy, 
that  sits  at  the  gate  of  men's  souls,  and 
watches  against  unwelcome  truths ;  if  one 
could  by  eloquence  give  sops  to  this 
monster,  and  overcome  him,  would  it  not 
be  worth  while  to  do  it  ?  Are  we  to  go 
on  still  cudgeling,  and  cudgeling,  and 
cudgeling  men's  ears  with  coarse  pro- 
cesses ?  Are  we  to  consider  it  a  special 
providence  when  any  good  comes  from 
our  preaching  or  our  teaching  ?  Are  we 
never  to  study  how  skillfully  to  pick  the 
lock  of  curiosity,  to  unfasten  the  door  of 
fancy,  to  throw  wide  open  the  halls  of 
emotion,  and  to  kindle  the  light  of  inspi- 
ration in  the  souls  of  men  ?  Is  there  any 
reality  in  oratory  ?  It  is  all  real. 


22 

First,  in  the  orator  is  the  man.  Let 
no  man  who  is  a  sneak  try  to  be  an 
orator.  The  method  is  not  the  substance 
of  oratory.  A  man  who  is  to  be  an 
orator  must  have  something  to  say.  He 
must  have  something  that  in  his  very 
soul  he  feels  to  be  worth  saying.  He 
must  have  in  his  nature  that  kindly 
sympathy  which  connects  him  with  his 
fellow-men,  and  which  so  makes  him  a 
part  of  the  audience  which  he  moves  as 
that  his  smile  is  their  smile,  that  his  tear 
is  their  tear,  and  that  the  throb  of  his 
heart  becomes  the  throb  of  the  hearts  of 
the  whole  assembly.  A  man  that  is 
humane,  a  lover  of  his  kind,  full  of  all 
earnest  and  sweet  sympathy  for  their 
welfare,  has  in  him  the  original  element, 
the  substance  of  oratory,  which  is  truth  ; 
but  in  this  world  truth  needs  nursing  and 
helping ;  it  needs  every  advantage  ;  for 


tire  underflow  of  life  is  animal,  and  the 
channels  of  human  society  have  been 
taken  possession  of  by  lower  influences 
beforehand.  The  devil  squatted  on  human 
territory  before  the  angel  came  to  dispos- 
sess him.  Pride  and  intolerance,  arro- 
gance and  its  cruelty,  selfishness  and  its 
greed,  all  the  lower  appetites  and  pas- 
sions, do  swarm,  and  do  hold  in  thrall 
the  under-man  that  each  one  of  us  yet 
carries — the  man  of  flesh,  on  which  the 
spirit-man  seeks  to  ride,  and  by  which 
too  often  he  is  thrown  and  trampled  under 
foot.  The  truth  in  its  attempt  to  wean 
the  better  from  the  worse  needs  every 
auxiliary  and  every  adjuvant. 

Therefore,  the  man  who  goes  forth  to 
speak  the  truth,  whether  men  will  hear 
or  whether  they  will  forbear,  and  goes 
with  the  determination  that  the}-  shall 
hear ;  the  man  who  carries  victory  in  his 


24 

hope ;  the  man  who  has  irrefragible 
courage — it  is  not  enough  that  he  has  in 
his  soul  this  element,  which,  though  it  be 
despised,  is  the  foundation  element,  and 
which  comes  first  by  birth,  thanks  to  your 
father  and  mother,  thanks  to  the  provi- 
dence that  gave  you  such  a  father  and 
such  a  mother,  and  thanks  to  the  God 
who  inspires  it  and  sanctifies  it.  With 
this  predisposition  and  this  substance  of 
truth  which  men  need,  and  which  is  to  re- 
fashion human  life  in  all  its  parts,  the 
question  arises  whether  there  is  need  of 
anything  more  than  gracious  culture. 
Well,  so  long  as  men  are  in  the  body  they 
need  the  body.  There  are  some  who 
think  they  have  well-nigh  crucified  the 
body.  If  they  have,  why  are  they  linger- 
ing here  below,  where  they  are  not  useful, 
and  where  they  are  not  needed  ?  So  long 
as  men  touch  the  ground,  and  feel  their 


25 

own  weight,  so  long  they  need  the  apti- 
tudes and  the  instrumentalities  of  the 
human  body  ;  and  one  of  the  very  first 
steps  in  oratory  is  that  which  trains  the 
body  to  be  the  welcome  and  glad  servant 
of  the  soul — which  it  is  not  always  ;  for 
many  and  many  a  one  who  has  acres  of 
thought  has  little  bodily  culture,  and  as 
little  grace  of  manners  ;  and  many  and 
many  a  one  who  has  sweetening  inside 
has  cacophony  when  he  speaks.  Harsh, 
rude,  hard,  bruising,  are  his  words. 

The  first  work,  therefore,  is  to  teach  a 
man's  body  to  serve  his  soul ;  and  in  this 
work  the  education  of  the  bodily  presence 
is  the  very  first  step.  We  had  almost  ex- 
tinguished the  power  of  the  human  body 
by  our  pulpits,  which,  in  early  days,  were 
the  sources  and  centres  of  popular  elo- 
quence such  as  there  was  ;  for  men  fol- 
lowed the  Apocalyptic  figure  of  the 


26 

candlestick,  the  pulpit  in  the  church  rep- 
resenting the  candlestick,  and  the  minister 
being  supposed  to  be  the  light  in  it.  In 
those  days  of  symbolizatioii  everything 
had  to  be  symbolized ;  and  when  a  church 
was  built  they  made  a  pulpit  that  was 
like  the  socket  of  a  candlestick,  and  put  a 
man  into  it ;  and  thus  entubbed  he  looked 
down  afar  upon  his  congregation  to  speak 
unto  them !  Now,  what  man  could  win  a 
coy  and  proud  companion  if  he  were 
obliged  to  court  at  fifty  feet  distance 
from  her  ?  or,  what  man,  pleading  for  his 
life,  would  plead  afar  off,  as  through  a 
speaking  trumpet,  from  the  second  story, 
to  one  down  below  ? 

Nay,  men  have  been  covered  up.  The 
introduction  of  platforms  has  been 
thought,  on  the  whole,  to  be  a  somewhat 
discourteous  thing.  I  will  tell  you,  if  you 
will  indulge  me,  a  little  reminiscence  of 


27 

iny  own  experience.  In  the  church 
where  I  minister  there  v>ras  110  pulpit ; 
there  was  only  a  platform  ;  and  some  of 
the  elect  ladies,  honorable  and  precious, 
waited  upon  me  to  know  if  I  would  not 
permit  a  silk  screen  to  be  drawn  across 
the  front  of  my  table,  so  that  my  legs  and 
feet  need  not  be  seen.  My  reply  to  them 
was,  UI  will,  on  one  condition — that 
whenever  I  make  a  pastoral  call  at  your 
houses  you  will  have  a  green  silk  bag 
into  which  I  ma}-  put  my  legs." 

If  the  legs  and  feet  are  tolerable  in  a 
saloon,  or  in  a  social  room,  why  are  they 
not  tolerable  on  a  platform  ?  It  takes  the 
whole  man  to  make  a  man ;  and  at  times 
there  are  no  gestures  that  are  comparable 
to  the  simple  stature  of  the  man  himself. 
So  it  behooves  us  to  train  men  to  use  the 
whole  of  themselves.  Frequently  the  foot 
is  emphasis,  and  the  posture  is  oftentimes 


28 

power,  after  a  word,  or  accompanying  a 
word ;  and  men  learn  to  perceive  the 
thought  coming  afar  off  from  the  man 
himself  who  foreshadows  it  by  his  action. 

You  shall  no  longer,  when  men  are 
obliged  to  stand  disclosed  before  the  whole 
audience,  see  ministers  bent  over  a  desk, 
like  a  weary  horse  crooked  over  a  hitch- 
ing block,  and  preaching  first  on  one  leg, 
and  then  on  the  other.  To  be  a  gentle- 
man in  the  presence  of  an  audience  is  one 
of  the  first  lessons  which  oratory  will 
teach  the  young  aspiring  speaker. 

But,  beside  that,  what  power  there  is 
in  posture,  or  in  gesture !  By  it,  how 
many  discriminations  are  made  ;  how 
many  smooth  things  are  rolled  off ;  how 
many  complex  things  men  are  made  to 
comprehend  !  How  many  things  the 
body  can  tongue  when  the  tongue  itself 
cannot  well  utter  the  thing  desired  !  The 


29 

tongue  and  the  person  are  to  co-operate ; 
and  having  been  trained  to  work  together, 
the  result  is  spontaneous,  unthought  of, 
unarranged  for. 

Now,  to  the  real  natural  man — and  the 
natural  man  is  the  educated  man;  not  the 
thing  from  which  he  sprang — how  much 
is  to  be  added !  Many  a  man  will  hear 
the  truth  for  the  pleasure  of  hearing  it, 
who  would  not  hear  it  for  the  profit  of 
hearing  it ;  and  so  there  must  be  some- 
thing more  than  its  plain  statement. 
Among  other  things,  the  voice — perhaps 
the  most  important  of  all,  and  the  least 
cultured — should  not  be  forgotten.  How 
many  men  are  there  that  can  speak  from 
day  to  day  one  hour,  two  hours,  three 
hours,  without  exhaustion,  and  without 
hoarseness  ?  But  it  is  in  the  power  of  the 
vocal  organs,  and  of  the  ordinary  vocal 
organs,  to  do  this.  What  multitudes  of 


30 

men  weary  themselves  out  because  they 
put  their  voice  on  a  hard  run  at  the  top  of 
its  compass  ! — and  there  is  no  relief  to 
them,  and  none,  unfortunately,  to  the 
audience.  But  the  voice  is  like  an 
orchestra.  It  ranges  high  up,  and  can 
shriek  betimes  like  the  scream  of  an 
eagle  ;  or  it  is  low  as  a  lion's  tone  ;  and 
at  every  intermediate  point  is  some  pecu- 
liar quality.  It  has  in  it  the  mother's 
whisper  and  the  father's  command.  It 
has  in  it  warning  and  alarm.  It  has  in  it 
sweetness.  It  is  full  of  mirth  and  full  of 
gayety.  It  glitters,  though  it  is  not  seen 
with  all  its  sparkling  fancies.  It  ranges 
high,  intermediate,  or  low,  in  obedience  to 
the  will,  unconsciously  to  him  who  uses 
it;  and  men  listen  through  the  long  hour, 
wondering  that  it  is  so  short,  and  quite 
unaware  that  they  have  been  bewitched 
out  of  their  weariness  by  the  charm  of  a 


31 

voice,  not  artificial,  not  prearranged  in  the 
man's  thought,  but  by  assiduous  training 
made  to  be  his  second  nature.  Such  a 
voice  answers  to  the  soul,  and  it  is  its 
beating. 

Now,  against  this  training  manifold 
objections  are  made.  It  is  said  that  it  is 
unworthy  of  manhood  that  men  should  be 
so  trained.  The  conception  of  a  man  is 
that  of  blunt  earnestness.  It  is  said  that 
if  a  man  knows  what  he  wants  to  say,  he 
can  say  it  ;  that  if  he  knows  what  he 
wants  to  have  men  do,  the  way  is  for  him 
to  pitch  at  them.  That  seems  to  be  about 
the  idea  which  ordinarily  prevails  on  this 
subject.  Shoot  a  man,  as  you  would  a 
rocket  in  war  ;  throw  him  as  you  would  a 
hand-grenade  ;  and  afterward,  if  you 
please,  look  to  see  where  he  hits  ;  and 
woe  be  to  those  who  touch  the  fragments ! 
Such  appears  to  be  the  notion  which 


32 

many  have  on  this  subject.  But  where 
else,  in  what  other  relation,  does  a  man 
so  reason  ?  Here  is  the  highest  function 
to  which  any  man  can  address  himself— 
the  attempt  to  vitalize  men  ;  to  give 
warmth  to  frigid  natures  ;  to  give  aspi- 
rations to  the  dull  and  low-flying  ;  to 
give  purpose  to  conduct,  and  to  evolve 
character  from  conduct  ;  to  train  every 
part  of  one's  self — the  thinking  power ; 
the  perceptive  power  ;  the  intuitions  ;  the 
imagination  ;  all  the  sweet  and  overflow- 
ing emotions.  The  grace  of  the  body ; 
its  emphasis  ;  its  discriminations  ;  the 
power  of  the  eye  and  of  the  voice — all 
these  belong  to  the  blessedness  of  this 
work. 

"  No,"  says  the  man  of  the  school  of 
the  beetle,  "  buzz,  and  fight,  and  hit 
where  you  can."  Thus  men  disdain 
this  culture  as  though  it  were  something 


33 

effeminate  ;  as  though  it  were  a  science 
of  ornamentation  ;  as  though  it  were  a 
means  of  stealing  men's  convictions,  not 
enforcing  them  ;  and  as  though  it  lacked 
calibre  and  dignity. 

But  why  should  not  this  reasoning  be 
applied  to  everything  else  ?  The  very 
man  who  wrill  not  train  his  own  voice  to 
preach,  to  lecture,  to  discourse,  whether 
in  the  field  or  in  the  legislative  hall,  or  in 
the  church,  will  pay  large  dues  through 
weary  quarters  to  drill  his  daughter's 
voice  to  sing  hymns,  and  canzonets,  and 
other  music.  This  is  not  counted  to  be 
unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  womanhood. 

"  But,"  it  is  said,  "  does  not  the  voice 
come  by  nature?"  Yes  ;  but  is  there  any- 
thing that  comes  by  nature  which  stays 
as  it  comes  if  it  is  worthily  handled?  We 
receive  one  talent  that  we  may  make  it 
five  ;  and  we  receive  five  talents  that  we 
3 


may  make  them  ten.  There  is  no  one 
thing  in  man  that  he  has  in  perfection  till 
he  has  it  by  culture.  We  know  that  in 
respect  to  everything  but  the  voice.  Is 
not  the  ear  trained  to  acute  hearing  ?  Is 
not  the  eye  trained  in  science  ?  Do  men 
not  school  the  eye,  and  make  it  quick-see- 
ing by  patient  use  ?  Is  a  man,  because 
he  has  learned  a  trade,  and  was  not  born 
with  it,  thought  to  be  less  a  man  ?  Be- 
cause we  have  made  discoveries  of  science 
and  adapted  them  to  manufacture ;  be- 
cause we  have  developed  knowledge  by 
training,  are  we  thought  to  be  unmanly  ? 
Shall  we,  because  we  have  unfolded  our 
powers  by  the  use  of  ourselves  for  that 
noblest  of  purposes,  the  inspiration  and 
elevation  of  mankind,  be  less  esteemed  ? 
Is  the  school  of  human  training  to  be  dis- 
dained when  by  it  we  are  rendered  more 
useful  to  our  fellow-men  ? 


35 

But  it  is  said  that  this  culture  is  artifi- 
cial ;  that  it  is  mere  posturing ;  that  it  is 
simple  ornamentation.  Ah !  that  is  not 
because  there  has  been  so  much  of  it,  but 
because  there  has  been  so  little  of  it.  If 
a  man  were  to  begin,  as  he  should,  early  ; 
or  if,  beginning  late,  he  were  to  addict 
himself  assiduously  to  it,  then  the  graces 
of  speech,  the  graces  of  oratory,  would  be 
to  him  what  all  learning  must  be  before 
it  is  perfect,  namely,  spontaneous.  If  he 
were  to  be  trained  earlier,  then  his  train- 
ing would  not  be  called  the  science  of  os- 
tentation or  of  acting. 

Never  is  a  man  thoroughly  taught  until 
he  has  forgotten  how  he  learned.  Do  you 
remember  when  you  tottered  from  chair 
to  chair?  Xow  you  walk  without  think- 
ing that  you  learned  to  walk.  Do  you 
remember  when  your  inept  hands  wan- 
dered through  the  air  toward  the  candle, 


36 

or  toward  the  mother's  bosom  ?  Now 
how  regulated,  how  true  to  your  wish, 
how  quick,  how  sharp  to  the  touch,  are 
those  hands !  But  it  was  by  learning 
that  they  became  so  far  perfected.  Their 
perfection  is  the  fruit  of  training. 

Let  one  think  of  what  he  is  doing,  and 
he  does  it  ill.  If  you  go  into  your  parlor, 
where  your  wife  and  children  arc,  you 
always  know  what  to  do  with  yourself — 
or  almost  always  !  You  are  not  awkward 
in  your  postures,  nor  are  you  awkward 
with  your  hands  ;  but  let  it  be  understood 
that  there  are  a  dozen  strangers  to  be 
present,  and  you  begin  to  think  how  to 
appear  well  before  them ;  and  the  result 
of  your  thinking  about  it  is  that  you 
appear  very  ill.  Where  to  put  your 
hands,  and  where  to  put  yourself,  you  do 
not  know ;  how  to  stand  or  how  to  sit 
troubles  you ;  whether  to  hold  up  one 


37 

hand  or  the  other  hand,  or  to  hold  both 
down,  or  both  up,  is  a  matter  of  thought 
with  you. 

Let  me  walk  on  the  narrowest  of  these 
boards  upon  which  I  stand,  and  I  walk 
with  simplicity  and  perfect  safety,  because 
I  scarcely  think  of  walking ;  but  lift  that 
board  fifty  feet  above  the  ground,  and  let 
me  walk  on  it  as  far  as  across  this  build- 
ing, and  let  me  think  of  the  consequences 
that  would  result  if  I  were  to  fall,  and 
how  I  would  tremble  and  reel !  The  mo- 
ment a  man's  attention  is  directed  to  that 
which  he  does,  he  does  it  ill.  When  the 
thing  which  a  man  does  is  so  completely 
mastered  as  that  there  is  an  absence  of 
volition,  and  he  does  it  without  knowing 
it,  he  does  it  easily ;  but  when  the  voli- 
tion is  not  subdued,  and  when,  therefore, 
he  does  not  act  spontaneously,  he  is  con- 
scious of  what  he  does,  and  the  conscious- 


ness  prevents  his  doing  it  easily.  Uncon- 
sciousness is  indispensable  to  the  doing  a 
thing  easily  and  well. 

Now,  in  regard  to  the  training  of  the 
orator,  it  should  begin  in  boyhood,  and 
should  be  part  and  parcel  of  the  lessons 
of  the  school.  Grace;  posture;  force  of 
manner ;  the  training  of  the  eye,  that  it 
may  look  at  men,  and  pierce  them,  and 
smile  upon  them,  and  bring  summer  to 
them,  and  call  down  storms  and  winter 
upon  them  ;  the  development  of  the  hand, 
that  it  may  wield  the  sceptre,  or  beckon 
with  sweet  persuasion — these  things  do 
not  come  artificially  ;  they  belong  to  man. 
Why,  men  think  that  Nature  means  that 
which  lies  back  of  culture.  Then  you 
ought  never  to  have  departed  from  baby- 
hood ;  for  that  is  the  only  nature  you  had 
to  begin  with.  But  is  nature  the  acorn 
forever  ?  Is  not  the  oak  nature  ?  Is  not 


39 

that  which  comes  from  the  seed  the  best 
representation  of  the  divine  conception  of 
the  seed?  And  as  men  we  are  seeds. 
Culture  is  but  planting  them  and  training 
them  according  to  their  several  natures; 
and  nowhere  is  training  nobler  than  in 
preparing  the  orator  for  the  great  work  to 
which  he  educates  himself — the  elevation 
of  his  kind,  through  truth,  through 
earnestness,  through  beauty,  through 
every  divine  influence. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  times  are  chang- 
ing, and  that  we  ought  not  to  attempt  to 
meddle  with  that  which  God  has  provided 
for.  Say  men,  "  The  truth  is  before  you  ; 
there  is  your  Bible ;  go  preach  the  Word 
of  God."  Well,  if  you  are  not  to  meddle 
with  what  God  has  provided  for,  why  was 
not  the  Bible  sent  instead  of  you  ?  You 
were  sent  because  the  very  object  of  a 
preacher  was  to  give  the  truth  a  living 


40 

form,  and  not  have  it  lie  in  the  dead  letter. 
As  to  its  simplicity  and  as  to  its  beauty, 
I  confute  you  with  your  own  doctrine  ; 
for,  as  I  read  the  sacred  text,  it  is,  "Adorn 
the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour."  We 
are  to  make  it  beautiful.  There  are  times 
when  we  cannot  do  it.  There  are  times 
for  the  scalpel,  there  are  times  for  the 
sword,  and  there  are  times  for  the  battle- 
axe  ;  but  these  are  exceptional.  "  Let 
every  one  of  us  please  his  neighbor  for 
his  good  to  edification "  is  a  standing 
command ;  and  we  are  to  take  the  truth, 
of  every  kind,  and  if  possible  bring  it  in 
its  summer  guise  to  men. 

But  it  is  said,  "  Our  greatest  orators 
have  not  been  trained."  How  do  you 
know?  It  may  be  that  Patrick  Henry 
went  crying  in  the  wilderness  of  poor 
speakers,  without  any  great  training ;  I 
will  admit  that  now  and  then  there  are 


gifts  so  eminent  and  so  impetuous  that 
they  break  through  ordinary  necessities  ; 
but  even  Patrick  Henry  was  eloquent  only 
under  great  pressure ;  and  there  remain 
the  results  of  only  one  or  two  of  his 
efforts.  Daniel  Webster  is  supposed  in 
many  respects  to  have  been  the  greatest 
American  orator  of  his  time  ;  but  there 
never  lived  a  man  who  was  so  studious  of 
everything  he  did,  even  to  the  buttons  on 
his  coat,  as  Daniel  Webster.  Henry  Clay 
was  prominent  as  an  orator,  but  though 
he  was  not  a  man  of  the  schools,  he  was 
a  man  who  schooled  himself;  and  by  his 
own  thought  and  taste  and  sense  of  that 
which  was  fitting  and  beautiful,  he  be- 
came, through  culture,  an  accomplished 
orator. 

If  you  go  from  our  land  to  other  lands  ; 
if  you  go  to  the  land  which  has  been 
irradiated  by  parliamentary  eloquence  ; 


42 

if  you  go  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  ; 
if  you  go  to  the  great  men  in  ancient 
times  who  lived  in  the  intellect ;  if  you 
go  to  the  illustrious  names  that  every  one 
recalls — Demosthenes  and  Cicero — they 
represent  a  life  of  work. 

Not  until  Michael  Angelo  had  been  the 
servant  and  the  slave  of  matter  did  he 
learn  to  control  matter ;  and  not  until  he 
had  drilled  and  drilled  and  drilled  himself 
were  his  touches  free  and  easy  as  the 
breath  of  summer,  and  full  of  color  as  the 
summer  itself.  Not  until  Raphael  had 
subdued  himself  by  color  was  he  the 
crowning  artist  of  beauty.  You  shall  not 
find  one  great  sculptor,  nor  one  great 
architect,  nor  one  great  painter,  nor  one 
eminent  man  in  any  department  of  art, 
nor  one  great  scholar,  nor  one  great 
statesman,  nor  one  divine  of  universal 
gifts,  whose  greatness,  if  you  inquire,  you 


43 

will  not  find  to  be  the  fruit  of  study,  and 
of  the  evolution  that  comes  from  study. 

It  is  said,  furthermore,  that  oratory  is 
one  of  the  lost  arts.  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  our  struggles  brought  forth  not  one 
prominent  orator.  This  fact  reveals  a 
law  which  has  been  overlooked — namely, 
that  aristocracy  diminishes  the  number  of 
great  men,  and  makes  the  few  so  much 
greater  than  the  average  that  they  stand 
up  like  the  pyramids  in  the  deserts  of 
Egypt  ;  whereas,  democracy  distributes 
the  resources  of  society,  and  brings  up 
the  whole  mass  of  the  people  ;  so  that 
under  a  democratic  government  great  men 
never  stand  so  high  above  the  average  as 
they  do  when  society  has  a  level  far 
below  them.  Let  building  go  up  on 
building  around  about  the  tallest  spire 
in  this  city,  and  you  dwarf  the  spire, 
though  it  stand  as  high  as  heaven, 


44 

because  even-thing  by  which  it  is  sur- 
rounded has  risen  higher. 

Now,  throughout  our  whole  land  there 
was  more  eloquence  during  our  struggles 
than  there  was  previously ;  but  it  was  in 
far  more  mouths.  It  was  distributed. 
There  was  in  the  mass  of  men  a  higher 
method  of  speaking,  a  greater  power  in 
addressing  their  fellow-men  ;  and  though 
single  men  were  not  so  prominent  as 
they  would  have  been  under  other  circum- 
stances, the  reason  is  one  for  which  we 
should  be  grateful.  There  were  more 
men  at  a  higher  average,  though  there 
were  fewer  men  at  ail  extreme  altitude. 

Then  it  is  said  that  books,  and  espe- 
cially newspapers,  are  to  take  the  place 
of  the  living  voice.  Never  !  never!  The 
miracle  of  modern  times,  in  one  respect,  is 
the  Press  ;  to  it  is  given  a  wide  field  and 
a  wonderful  work  ;  and  when  it  shall  be 


45 

clothed  with  all  the  moral  inspirations, 
with  all  the  ineffable  graces,  that  come 
from  simplicity  and  honesty  and  convic- 
tion, it  will  have  a  work  second  almost  to 
none  other  in  the  land.  Like  the  light,  it 
carries  knowledge  every  day  round  the 
globe.  What  is  done  at  St.  Paul's  in  the 
morning  is  known,  or  ever  half  the  day 
has  run  around,  in  Wall  Street,  New 
York.  What  is  done  in  New  York  at  the 
rising  of  the  sun,  is,  before  the  noontide 
hour  known  in  California.  By  the  power 
of  the  wire,  and  of  the  swift-following 
engine,  the  papers  spread  at  large  vast 
quantities  of  information  before  myriad 
readers  throughout  the  country ;  but  the 
office  of  the  papers  is  simply  to  convey  in- 
formation. They  cannot  plant  it.  They 
cannot  open  the  soil  and  put  it  into  the 
furrow.  They  cannot  enforce  it.  It  is 
given  only  to  the  living  man,  standing 


46 

before  men  with  the  seed  of  knowledge  in 
his  hand,  to  open  the  furrows  in  the  living 
souls  of  men,  and  sow  the  seed,  and  cover 
the  furrows  again.  Not  until  human  na- 
ture is  other  than  it  is,  will  the  function 
of  the  'living  voice — the  greatest  force  on 
earth  among  men — cease.  Not  until  then 
will  the  orator  be  useless,  who  brings  to 
his  aid  all  that  is  fervid  in  feeling  ;  who 
incarnates  in  himself  the  truth ;  who  is 
for  the  hour  the  living  reason,  as  well  as 
the  reasoner ;  who  is  for  the  moment  the 
moral  sense;  who  carries  in  himself  the 
importunity  and  the  urgency  of  zeal ;  who 
brings  his  influence  to  bear  upon  men  in 
various  ways  ;  who  adapts  himself  contin- 
ually to  the  changing  conditions  of  the 
men  that  are  before  him  ;  who  plies  them 
by  softness  and  by  hardness,  by  light  and 
by  darkness,  by  hope  and  by  fear  ;  who 
stimulates  them  or  represses  them  at  his 


47 

will.  Nor  is  there,  let  me  say,  on  God's 
footstool,  anything  so  crowned  and  so 
regal  as  the  sensation  of  one  who  faces  an 
audience  in  a  worthy  cause,  and  with  am- 
plitude of  means,  and  defies  them,  fights 
them,  controls  them,  conquers  them. 

Great  is  the  advance  of  civilization ; 
might}7  are  the  engines  of  force,  but  man 
is  greater  than  that  which  he  produces. 
Vast  is  that  machine  which  stands  in  the 
dark  unconsciously  lifting,  lifting — the 
only  humane  slave — the  iron  slave — the 
Corliss  engine  ;  but  he  that  made  the  en- 
gine is  greater  than  the  engine  itself. 
Wonderful  is  the  skill  by  which  that  most 
exquisite  mechanism  of  modern  life,  the 
watch,  is  constructed;  but  greater  is  the 
man  that  made  the  watch  than  the  watch 
that  is  made.  Great  is  the  Press,  great 
are  the  hundred  instrumentalities  and  in- 
stitutions and  customs  of  society ;  but 


above  them  all  is  man.  The  living  force 
is  greater  than  any  of  its  creations — 
greater  than  society,  greater  than  its  laws. 
k  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath,"  saith  the  Lord. 
Man  is  greater  than  his  own  institutions. 
And  this  living  force  is  worthy  of  all  cul- 
ture— of  all  culture  in  the  power  of 
beauty ;  of  all  culture  in  the  direction  of 
persuasion ;  of  all  culture  in  the  art  of 
reasoning. 

To  make  men  patriots,  to  make  men 
Christians,  to  make  men  the  sons  of  God, 
let  all  the  doors  of  heaven  be  opened,  and 
let  God  drop  down  charmed  gifts — winged 
imagination,  all-perceiving  reason,  and 
all-judging  reason.  Whatever  there  is 
that  can  make  men  wiser  and  better — let 
it  descend  upon  the  head  of  him  who  has 
consecrated  himself  to  the  work  of  man- 
kind, and  who  has  made  himself  an  orator 
for  man's  sake  and  for  God's  sake. 


THE  WHITE  SUNLIGHT 

OF 

P  O  T  K  N  T     WORDS 

AN  ORATION 

BY 

REV.  JOHN  S.  MACINTOSH,  D.  D. 
DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 

NATIONAL  SCHOOL  OF  ELOCUTION  AND  ORATORY  UPON  IHB  OCCASION 
OF  ITS  EIGHTH  ANNUAL  COMMENCEMRNT,  HELD  AT  THE  AMERI- 
CAN ACAOEMV   OF   MUSIC,  PHILADELPHIA,  JUNE    14,  l88l 


THE) 


OF 


OF  the  countless  acts  of  kindness  and 
gratifying  expressions  of  esteem  that 
have  marked  and  sweetened  my  return 
after  long  absence  to  my  native  city  and 
beloved  land,  among  the  very  foremost 
and  most  flattering  must  be  ranked  by 
me  the  strongly-expressed  invitation  to 
deliver  this  annual  address  before  Phila- 
delphia's critical  sons  and  cultured 
daughters. 

From  this  honorable  task  I,  not  un- 
naturally nor  surprisingly,  at  first 
shrank.  Knowing  on  the  one  side  so 
well  the  distinguished  and  masterly 


52 

speakers  who,  to  your  pleased  profit  and 
to  their  owii  enhanced  fame,  had  pre- 
ceded ma  upon  this  stage  of  perfect 
speech  and  purest  song,  and  had  made 
this  oration  at  once  a  high  honor  and  a 
toil-fraught  duty,  and  knowing  upon  the 
other  side  even  better  at  once  my  native 
inability  to  stand  a  peer  of  such  famous 
forerunners,  and  also  the  stern,  distract- 
ing pressure  of  clamant  and  incessant 
work  in  this  fresh  field  and  amid  a 
thousand  thought  -  troubling  circum- 
stances which  made  adequate  preparation 
for  me  an  insuperable  impossibility,  I 
had  twice  felt  it  my  plain  duty  to  put  away 
from  me  the  delightful  labor  and  the 
tempting  request.  But  the  pleadings  of 
a  lady  whose  worth  and  work  demand 
most  sympathetic  consideration,  and  the 
persuasions  of  friends  whose  words  of 
request  are  stronger  than  the  commands 


53 

of  a  master,  "have  at  last  placed  me  where 
I  shall  need  all  the  gracious  indulgence 
which  hard-wrought  and  overtasked  men 
so  freely  extend  to  an  overstrained 
brother,  and  the  tender  consideration 
which  thoughtful  gentlewomen  never 
fail  to  show  to  the  plain,  blunt  man  who 
simply  tells  the  thoughts  that  inly  move 
him. 

Yet  not  of  constraint,  but  willingly, 
am  I  here  this  night.  For  me  it  is  a 
pure,  strong  joy  to  face  my  bright  and 
stirring  theme,  to  front  this  inspiriting 
throng  and  forecast  the  toilsome  but 
triumphant  days  that  shall  summon  out 
the  powers  of  these  ardent  students  of 
the  art  of  speech  :  the  place,  the  audience, 
the  object  of  our  gathering,  are  cheering 
and  pleasant ;  and  I  feel  that  around  me 
is  playing  a  soft  and  kindly  light  as  I 
come  to  speak  to  you  of  "  The  White 


54 

Sunlight  of  Potent  Words,"  longing  as 
I  do  that  soon  in  our  glorious  land  all 
our  spokesmen  shall  be  true-souled 
prophets,  whose  utterances,  light-born 
and  light-shedding,  shall  prove  them 
children  of  the  light,  whose  luminous 
words  shall  chase  night  and  spread  day 
in  a  hundred  fields  of  thought,  and  be, 
therefore,  words  of  power  well  chosen 
and  perfectly  spoken. 

This  striking  phrase,  u  The  white  sun- 
light of  potent  words,"  occurs  in  one  of 
his  books  who  was  himself  no  mean  sun 
in  the  literary  world,  whose  words  were 
truly  forces :  I  mean  that  freshest  and 
most  striking  instance  of  Atavism  which 
our  Knglish-speaking  nation  has  ever 
studied,  Carlyle's  worshipful  portraiture 
of  his  strong-souled,  true-tongued,  clean- 
handed, God-fearing  father.  As  the  stern 
son  depicts  so  vividly  his  sterner  sire,  he 


55 

presents  him  to  us  as  one  who  loved  the 
white  sunlight  of  exact  truth  and  told 
his  own  clear  thoughts  in  potent  words. 
As  I  read  them  the  terms  engraved  them- 
selves upon  my  memory,  and  as  I 
searched  for  my  subject  they  flashed  back 
with  light  and  furnished  me  with  the 
theme  desired — one  not,  perchance,  inap- 
propriate to  this  occasion.  These  words 
of  Carlyle  seemed  to  me  to  set  forth  with 
sunny  vividness  and  striking  freshness 
exactly  what  each  lover  of  eloquence, 
what  all  earnest,  practical,  successful 
speakers,  what  you  in  this  prosperous, 
admirably  -  conducted  and  influential 
school  of  oratory,  seek  to  understand, 
appreciate,  and  acquire — the  prophet's 
secret, \\\z  strength  and  beauty  of  thought- 
ful, cultured,  impressive,  and  implusive 
speech.  Of  speech,  I  say,  the  might  and 
magic  of  the  spoken  soul ;  not  scripture, 


56 

the  written  soul ;  for  scripture — that  is, 
writing — is  at  the  best  but  the  precious 
and  splendid  artifice  to  embalm  thought 
and  perpetuate  some  silent  emblems  of 
the  once-active  spirit-life ;  but  speech, 
hot,  glowing,  fresh-born,  fire-kindling 
speech,  that  indeed  is  more  than  kingly 
power  :  "  the  tongue  is  the  glory  of  man." 
O  precious,  awful  power  wherewith  we 
may  yield  high  glory  to  God  and  minis- 
ter grace  and  good  to  men  !  how  shall  I 
make  this  sublime  gift  serve  its  destined 
ends,  change  its  grand  possibility  into 
glorious  potency  ?  how  shall  I  perfect 
into  a  true  servant  of  my  fellows  and  an 
acceptable  sacrifice  to  my  Maker  this 
divine  gift?  how  shall  I  find,  fashion, 
fling  forth  those  winged  words  that  prove 
my  heavenly  origin — those  arrows  of  the 
soul  that,  tipped  with  fire  and  swifter 
than  lightning,  slay  the  monsters  of 


57 

wrong ;  those  spirit- waves,  living  and  life- 
giving,  that  break  fresh  out  of  the  sea  of 
life  and  roll  onward  and  upward  till  they 
strike  upon  the  footstool  of  niy  listening 
Lord? 

How  shall  I  attain  to  this  the  one  true 
ideal  of  a  true  spokesman  ?  By  making 
speech — and  only  Ity  making  speech — a 
revelation  of  realities  ;  a  revelation  ex- 
act, reliable,  challenging  tests  the  keen- 
est, eyes  the  strongest.  Such  revelation 
is  light,  for  light  is  that  which  makes 
manifest ;  and  the  grace,  the  grandeur, 
the  glory  of  speech  is  the  manifestation 
of  truth  to  the  creatures  of  conscience. 
Such  manifestation  of  truth,  clean,  exact, 
luminous,  is  light — yes,  white  light ; 
and  that  is  the  very  life  and  essence  of 
the  highest  eloquence  and  the  truest 
oratory. 

Days  there  are  in  autumn  when  the 


53 

air  seems  to  have  been  filtered  through 
some  pure  fleecy  medium  and  made  ab- 
solutely dry ;  when  the  light  is  wholly 
colorless,  with  an  all-penetrating,  razor- 
like  keenness  in  it ;  when  the  sun  pours 
down  beams  from  which,  like  his  Mas- 
ter's sight,  nothing  is  hidden  ;  then  all 
things  stand  out  sharply  cut,  fully  un- 
folded, exactly  known,  in  the  white  light. 
Such  light,  such  revelation,  is  the  ideal 
of  eloquence ;  with  it  we  have  the  very 
life  and  essence  of  this  in  many  respects 
highest  of  the  fine  arts. 

There  is,  or  ought  to  be,  a  soul  in 
speech. 

As  in  ourselves  we  have  three  great 
parts — life,  form,  action,  or,  in  other 
words,  essence,  embodiment,  exercise — 
so  in  oratory  there  is  the  essence,  or  the 
substance,  or  the  throbbing,  thrilling, 
informing  life  ;  and  then  there  is  the 


59 

expression,  the  embodiment,  in  the  ap- 
propriate harmonious  forms  of  actual  ut- 
terance ;  and  then  there  is  the  exercise, 
the  action,  of  the  whole  man,  wherein 
lies  the  witchery,  the  spell,  of  speech. 

I.  THE  ESSENCE  OR  SUBSTANCE  OF 
ELOQUENCE. 

Here,  as  so  often,  a  false  start  is  ruin, 
but  well  begun  is  half  ended.  Start 
with  the  true  substance,  seek  first  the 
strength  of  speech — which  is  truth, 
reality — and  you  will  in  due  time,  be- 
cause loving  truth,  add  beauty,  grace, 
and  sweetness.  But  foolishly  reverse 
the  order — start  with,  think  first  of,  aim 
chiefly  after,  beauty — and  you  will  never 
reach  the  highest  beaut}^  and  utterly 
miss  strength.  It  is  the  voice,  there- 
fore, not  only  of  a  holy  morality,  but 


6o 

also  of  high  reflective  art,  of  a  really  no- 
ble, resistless  eloquence,  that  falls  upon 
our  ear  as  we  catch,  the  old  words, 
clarion-like  and  commanding :  Speak 
ye  every  man  truth  with  his  neighbor. 

Search  the  eloquence  of  the  past  for 
the  secret  of  its  great  strength,  and  you 
will  find  truth — truth  which  to  this  very 
hour  makes  the  manly  yet  skillful  plead- 
ings of  Judah  for  the  suspected  Benja- 
min before  the  disguised  Joseph,  the 
swelling  periods  of  Moses,  the  blunt, 
soldier-like  sentences  of  Joshua,  the 
lightning-flashes  of  Nathan's  attack  on 
David,  the  scathing  irony  of  Elijah,  the 
comforting  words  of  Isaiah,  the  deep- 
toned  voice  of  Peter,  the  gleaming  utter- 
ances of  Paul,  and  the  seraphic  teach- 
ings of  John  thrill  and  charm  and  en- 
chain us. 

Search,  ye  that  would  know  the  secret 


6i 

of  eloquence,  and  ye  shall  find  truth  to 
be  the  strength  of  the  great  classic 
speakers — truth,  which  Demosthenes, 
master  of  orators,  flung  as  well-wrought 
gold  into  those  still-resounding  orations 
which  outring  the  delighted  wonder  of 
the  growing  centuries  and  outlast  the 
keenest  examination  of  pitiless  criticism. 
Search,  and  ye  shall  find  truth,  which 
Plato,  Cicero,  and  Quintilian  declare  to 
be  the  very  throbbing,  informing  life  of 
all  abiding  and  impulsive  eloquence ; 
truth,  which  Theremin  makes  the  very 
virtue  of  eloquence  ;  which  Shedd  in  his 
scholarly,  suggestive  essays  declares  to 
be  the  very  glory  of  noble  speech ; 
which  Coleridge  and  Marsh,  with  Bacon, 
affirm  to  be  the  force  and  the  fire  of  elo- 
quence. Search,  and  you  will  find  that 
the  secret  of  eloquence  is  truth — truth, 
which  makes  Demosthenes  grander  than 


62 

^Eschines,  Cicero  than  Hortensius,  Mas- 
sillon  than  Bossuet,  Burke  than  Fox, 
Webster  than  Hayne,  Gladstone  than 
Disraeli.  Search,  and  you  shall  find 
truth ;  truth,  which  alone  can  fill  the 
good  man,  who  only,  according  to  Quin- 
tilian,  has  in  him  the  possibility  of  the 
orator,  with  those  heart-filling,  com- 
manding convictions  that  create  the  fiery 
energy  of  a  Chatham  and  the  resistless 
sweep  of  a  Mirabeau ;  truth,  which 
sneaking  tricksters  fear  more  than  the 
surging  mobs  of  their  furious  dupes,  and 
tyrants  hate  more  than  the  pointed  steel 
of  resolute  patriots ;  truth,  which  free- 
men love  like  a  mother's  voice,  and 
which  heroic  men  crave  after  more  than 
after  Hebe's  nectar. 

And  still,  ye  students  of  eloquence, 
that  truth  must  be  the  very  soul  and 
substance  of  speech,  else  there  can  be  no 


63 

harmony  of  intellect,  imagination,  emo- 
tion, and  will,  by  which  alone  is  secured 
the  complex  unity  of  high  discourse; 
still  truth  must  be  the  life  of  speech, 
else  there  can  be  no  light-flooded  reason, 
hence  no  healthy  throb  of  strongly-beat- 
ing heart,  and  liencs  no  mighty  surge  of 
will  whose  tremendous  forces  and  resist- 
less activities  whelm  and  bury  the  bad 
in  darksome  depths,  and  raise  the  good 
with  glorious  uplift  to  rest  on  eternal 
heights  in  victorious  safety  and  reign 
calm  and  unchallenged  benefactors  and 
saviors  of  their  kind. 

How,  you  ask,  shall  we  grow  rich  in 
truth,  this  royalty  of  speech  ?  Pursue 
the  path  just  begun  by  you;  walk  for- 
ward, earnest,  toiling,  appreciative  stu- 
dents, in  the  long-drawn  and  crowded 
halls  and  galleries  of  our  own  teeming 
English  literature.  Study  all  the  writers 


64 

you  can,  but  see  to  it  that  ye  live  with, 
that  you  love  with  pure  hearts  fervently, 
only  the  truest  of  our  English  seers, 
those  most  noble  souls  who  occupy  our 
Olympic  heights ;  and  if  ye  make  the 
truest  your  models,  companions,  and  mas- 
ters, you  will  see  and  grasp  truth,  the 
truth  will  live  within  you ;  then  soon 
the  fire  will  burn  and  your  tongue  will 
speak  the  gleaming,  glowing  words  that 
light  and  warm,  that  vivify  and  beautify. 

II.  THE  EXPRESSION  OF  THE  TRUTH. 

When  the  heart  loves  truth,  soon  the 
adequate  and  appropriate  expression  will 
become  at  once  a  necessity  and  an  anxi- 
ety. Life  is  ever  joined  to  organization 
in  man's  world ;  spirit  is  wedded  to  form  ; 
the  idea  must  be  embodied.  That  ex- 
pression is  the  work  and  glory  of  the 


65 

orator's  art.  The  vision  of  beauty  is 
unveiled  before  the  painter's  imaginative 
soul,  the  possible  angel  greets  the  mus- 
ing sculptor  from  the  huge  rough  marble 
block,  witching  tones  of  spirit-voices 
float  around  the  delighted  ears  of  the 
rapt  musician ;  and  Mitrillo  and  Ra- 
phael, Angelo  and  Thorwaldsen,  Handel 
and  Beethoven,  embody  in  fitting  artistic 
forms  the  truth  within  them,  and  the 
world  gathers  in  moved  delight  and  with 
wondering  souls.  The  eloquent  orator  is 
brother  in  art  to  the  painter,  the  sculp- 
tor, the  poet,  and  the  musician  ;  and  the 
proof  of  his  relationship  lies  in  the 
appropriateness,  .  vividness,  exactness, 
rhythm,  and  music  of  his  cultured 
speech,  for  these  constitute  the  form  of 
beauty  given  by  him  to  the  truth  that 
he  has  felt  or  seen  or  heard.  In  that 
clothing  of  the  ethereal  essence  with  the 


66 

fair  and  fitting  body  lies  the  art  and 
skill — the  painful  labor,  but  the'  exhila- 
rating joy — of  the  true  prophet. 

Teachers  of  your  fellows,  yon  have 
caught  in  your  lonely  hours  and  rever- 
ent thinking  soul-ravishing  views  of 
purity,  righteousness,  and  charity ;  or 
you  have  heard  the  thousand  varied 
voices  of  sky  and  sea  and  earth  caroling, 
thundering,  whispering  their  mystic 
messages  to  your  open  hearts  and 
responsive  spirit ;  or,  free-born,  you 
have  looked  upon  an  avaricious  Ahab  in 
his  tyrannous  meanness,  and  have 
watched  the  confronting  Elijah  in  all 
the  glorious  fearlessness  of  a  God-fearing 
man;  or,  sympathetic,  you  have  joined 
in  jubilant  youth's  gleeful  gladness,  or 
you  have  sat  in  silent  sorrow  beside  the 
desolate  orphan's  tear-drenched  pillow  ; 
or,  patriot-souled,  3-011  have  beheld  the 


6; 

down-trodden  country  rise  in  revolu- 
tionary wrath,  and  with  her  broken  fet- 
ters smite  her  despot  dead,  or  you  have 
in  mournfulness  marked  a  once-noble 
nation  drifting  through  the  mists  of  lies 
and  over  the  treacherous  seas  of  luxury 
to  her  eternal  ruin  ;  and  now  there  lives 
within  you  some  part  of  God's  great 
truth,  some  fragment  of  God's  great 
reality.  You  meditate  upon  this  truth  ; 
it  burns  within  you ;  you  must  speak  it 
out ;  and  speak  it  out  you  will,  for  you 
are  now  fitted  to  become  preachers  to 
men. 

What  now  must  ye  preachers  do  ?  Seek 
"  out  acceptable  words,"  and,  as  ye  seek 
them,  turn  to  our  English  stores.  Seek- 
ing to  be  rich  in  speech,  3^011  will  find 
that  in  the  broad  ocean  of  our  English 
literature  there  are  pearls  of  great  price, 
our  potent  English  words — words  that 


68 

are  wizards  more  mighty  than  the  old 
Scotch  magician  ;  words  that  are  pictures 
bright  and  moving  with  all  the  coloring 
and  circumstance  of  life;  words  that  go 
down  the  century  like  battle-cries  ;  words 
that  sob  like  litanies,  sing  like  larks, 
sigh  like  zepl^rs,  shout  like  seas.  Seek 
amid  our  exhaustless  stores,  and  3-011 
will  find  words  that  flash  like  the  stars 
of  the  frosty  sky,  or  are  melting  and 
tender  like  Love's  tear-filled  eyes ; 
words  that  are  fresh  and  crisp  like  the 
mountain-breeze  in  autumn,  or  are  mel- 
low and  rich  as  an  old  painting ;  words 
that  are  sharp,  unbending,  and  precise 
like  Alpine  needle-points,  or  are  heavy 
and  rugged  like  great  nuggets  of  gold ; 
words  that  are  glittering  and  gay  like 
imperial  gems,  or  are  chaste  and  refined 
like  the  face  of  a  Muse.  Search,  and  ye 
shall  find  words  that  crush  like  the 


69 

battle-axe  of  Richard  or  cut  like  the 
scimitar  of  Solyman ;  words  that  sting 
like  a  serpent's  fang  or  soothe  like  a 
mother's  kiss ;  words  that  can  unveil 
the  nether  depths  of  hell  or  point  out 
the  heavenly  heights  of  purity  and 
peace ;  words  that  can  recall  a  Judas, 
words  that  reveal  the  Christ. 

How  shall  we  find  these  pearls  of  Eng- 
lish speech — these  words  of  potency  that 
are  to  truth  what  fairest  body  is  to  finest 
soul  ? 

Dig  for  them  as  for  hidden  treasures. 
The  mines  are  near  you,  easily  wrought, 
inexhaustible ;  and  these  mines — more 
precious  to  us  than  Ophir  or  Golconda 
— where  -you  find  the  rarest  jewels  of 
truth  set  in  the  splendid  forms  of  perfect 
words,  are  the  thought-packed  treasures, 
the  moving  life,  the  chaste  beauty,  the 


7° 

masterly  strength,  the  reverent  dignity, 
of  our  unsurpassed  English  literature. 
What  a  teeming,  varied  field  of  rich 
terms,  of  glorious  forms,  of  glowing 
images,  of  melodious  and  majestic  speech, 
of  living  and  palpitating  expressions  and 
of  exquisitely  perfect  style,  opens  to  us  in 
that  realm  where  the  philosophic  voices  of 
Bacon,  Hooper,  Howe,  and  Burke,  where 
the  laughing,  satirical,  cutting  tones  of 
Butler,  Dryden,  and  Swift,  where  the 
crackling  wit  of  Goldsmith,  Stern,  and 
Lamb,  where  the  homely  greetings  of 
old  Father  Chaucer,  the  sweet  songs  of 
Spenser,  the  manly  teachings  of  Bunyan, 
the  terse  Saxon  of  South,  the  polished 
periods  of  Pope  and  Addison,  the  alter- 
nating pathos  and  humor  of  Steele,  the 
solemn  musings  of  Wordsworth,  all 
harmoniously  mingle,  and  where  the 


seraph-soul ed  Milton  and  myriad-minded 
Shakespeare  reign  unchallenged  as  twin 
kings ! 

Here,  then,  you  have  to  stir,  enrich, 
control,  and  cultivate  your  plastic  minds 
a  literature  that  embodies  in  the  most 
perfect  forms  of  Elizabethan  \vords  the 
peerless  gentleness  of  a  Sydney,  the 
unquailing  bravery  of  a  Glanville,  the 
quiet  majesty  of  a  Cecil,  the  dashing 
hardihood  of  a  Raleigh  and  the  sublime 
dignity  of  a  Howard.  What  a  rich  field 
of  supply  is  here  !  Here  is  a  literature 
that  is  marked  by  terseness  and  clear- 
ness, by  soberness  and  majesty,  by  sweet- 
ness and  fullness  of  expression,  never 
surpassed,  rarely  equalled.  Here  you 
have  for  your  oriiidance  and  enrichment 

J  O 

as  speakers  a  field  of  literature  marked 
in  one  department  by  the  pureness, 
thoroughness,  and  calmness  of  the  sage 


72 

who  loves  rich,  deep,  but  strongly-ruled 
speech,  and  shuns  with  holy  scorn  all 
strain  after  the  startling  or  striking ;  a 
literature  marked  in  another  depart- 
ment by  the  white  glow  of  fiery  zeal,  the 
rapid  rush  of  the  dauntless  will,  and  by 
the  passionate,  piercing  cry  of  the  deeply- 
stirred  but  despairing  seer ;  a  literature 
marked  in  another  department  by  short, 
sharp  sentences,  by  pointed  antitheses, 
striking  outbursts,  flashing  images.  This 
is  the  literature  that  presents  to  you  the 
gathered  wealth  of  the  English  tongue ; 
and  yet  this  vast  and  noble  library  into 
which  I  would  introduce  you,  far  from 
exhausting,  only  half  reveals,  the  marvel- 
ous riches  of  that  language  whose  inex- 
haustible stores  and  manifold  resources 
scarcely  one  amid  a  thousand  speakers 
ever  more  than  touches.  Before  us 
stands  a  grand  instrument  of  countless 


73 

strings,  of  myraid  notes  and  keys,  and 
\ve  are  content  with  some  few  hundreds, 
and  these  not  the  purest,  richest,  deep- 
est, sweetest.  If  you  would  be  strong 
of  speech,  master  more  of  these  notes ; 
let  your  vocabulary  be  rich,  varied,  pure, 
and  proportionate  will  be  your  power  and 
attractiveness  as  speakers.  I  would  have 
you  deeply  impressed  by  the  force,  full- 
uess,  and  flexibility  of  our  noble  tongue, 
where,  if  anywhere,  the  gigantic  strength 
of  thought  and  truth  is  wedded  to  the 
seraphic  beauty  of  perfect  utterance.  I 
would  have  you  fling  yourselves  unhesi- 
tatingly out  into  this  great  fresh  sea,  like 
bold  swimmers  into  the  rolling  waves  of 
ocean  :  it  will  make  you  health}-,  vigorous, 
supple,  and  equal  to  a  hundred  calls  of 
duty  ;  I  would  have  you  cherish  sacredly 
this  goodly  heritage,  won  by  centuries  of 
English  thought  and  countless  lives  of 


English  toil ;  I  would  have  you  jealous, 
like  the  apostle  over  the  Church,  over 
these  pure  wells  of  English  undefiled. 
Degrade  not  our  sacred  tongue  by  slang  ; 
defile  not  its  crystal  streams  with  the 
foul  waters  of  careless  speech  ;  honor  its 
stern  old  parentage ;  obey  its  simple  yet 
severe  grammar;  watch  its  perfect  rhythm, 
and  never  mix  its  blue  blood — the  gift  of 
noblest  sires — with  the  base  puddle  of 
any  mongrel  race.  Never  speak  half 
the  language  of  Ashdod  and  half  of 
Canaan,  but  be  }-e  of  a  pure  English 
lip. 

Ye  who  would  be  real  prophets,  join 
the  exactest  thought  to  the  most  exqui- 
site terms.  See  in  the  clearest  light. 
Hold  with  firmest  grip  exactly  what  that 
light  reveals,  and  then,  like  a  Murillo 
true  to  his  Madonna-vision,  and  like  an 
Angello  true  to  his  ideal  Moses,  seek 


75 

the  one  exact  impression  that  will  be  for 
your  hearers  the  exhaustive  embodiment 
of  that  unveiled  reality. 

All  this  word-hunting,  word-choosing, 
style-marking  and  mending,  means  toil, 
hard  and  unwearying ;  but  ^ye  have 
started  with  sacred  truth  as  the  sub- 
stance of  speech,  and  truth  beloved  ever 
spurs  forward  in  the  race  after  excel- 
lence in  expression.  As  the  image  of 
Minerva  rising  before  the  Greek,  of  Isis 
rising  before  the  Egyptian,  of  Wisdom 
before  the  Hebrew,  made  each  earnest  in 
the  portrayal,  so  Truth  rising  up  within 
you  will  move  to  tireless  labor  that  you 
may  find  for  her  fitting  forms  ;  and  if 
words  be  indeed  the  vestments  of  Truth, 
we  shall  see  that  they  are  exquisitely 
fitting  and  worthy  of  the  goddess,  for 
Truth  is  too  dear  and  sacred  to  be  shown 
in  rags  or  soiled  garments.  Conscience 


76 

in  the  seeking  means  conscience  in  the 
speaking  of  the  truth. 

Yes,  it  means  conscience,  further,  in 
the  showing  forth  of  the  truth  ;  and 
here  we  reach,  thirdly,  the  action  that 
makes  the  speech  living  and  telling. 

III.  THE  ELOCUTION. 

The  message  is  found,  acceptable 
words  have  clothed  it,  style  and  form  of 
expression  have  been  carefully  con- 
sidered :  what  remains  ?  The  elocution 
that  makes  the  message  tell  with  all 
possible  power.  You  must  now  speak 
out  your  message  with  an  utterance  and 
an  action  perfectly  befitting  the  truth 
and  its  artistic  form,  and  then  you  will 
have  made  it  a  resistless  potency.  Let 
the  man  act  out  Jiis  theme.  These  words 
of  light  thus  spoken,  will  be  conquerors. 


77 

Potency  links  itself  with  personality 
• — with  the  living,  moving,  sympatheti- 
cally and  harmoniously  acting-  man. 
And  if  the  uttered  truth,  if  the  cultured 
speech,  shall  have  its  fullest  possible 
power  and  win  its  grandest  victories,  the 
man  himself — yes,  the  whole  man,  tb rob- 
bing with  sympathy  and  palpitating 
with  life — must  be  an  additional  expres- 
sion, a  veritable  embodiment,  of  the 
truth  spoken.  The  whole  man  can  be 
made  to  speak  ;  eyes,  face,  hands,  body, 
limbs — yes,  the  very  color  and  breath — 
can  speak ;  and  they  shall,  and  must,  be 
made  to  speak  if  there  is  to  be  potent 
speech  and  perfect  oratory.  I  have 
studied  eager  men  in  a  street  wrangle  ; 
I  have  watched  playing  children  in  their 
dramatic  imitations  of  their  elders  and 
superiors;  I  have  closely  observed  for 
ninety-five  minutes  a  "passion preacher" 


of  the  famous  Dominicans  ;  and  with  the 
keenest  delight  I  have  beheld  what  a 
sympathetic,  harmonious  speech  the 
pliant  and  graceful  body  can  make. 
How  expressive  of  various  thought  this 
wondrous  form  can  be  !  Who  does  not 
know  the  Frenchman's  shrug,  the  mar- 
velous pliancy  of  the  Italian's  fingers, 
the  humorous  play  of  the  Irishman's 
face,  the  regal  dignity  of  the  Spaniard's 
bow,  the  sturdy  defiance  of  the  Briton's 
folded  arms,  the  impudent  independence 
of  "  Young  America's  "  akimbo,  and  the 
careless  swing  of  "  Jack  ashore  "  ?  What 
meaning  in  the  tottering  and  feeble 
steps  of  an  outcast  Lear,  in  the  stealthy 
footfall  of  a  jealous  Othello,  in  the  reso- 
lute stride  of  a  defiant  Macbeth,  and  in 
the  slow,  hesitating  motion  of  a  broken- 
hearted Ophelia  !  How  easily  and 
quickly  the  hands  will  reveal  the  sus- 


79 

piciotis  thoughts  of  Hamlet  watching  the 
conscience-stricken  King,  show  the  wild 
despair  of  the  blood-stained  Lady  Mac- 
beth, tell  the  pleading  pathos  of  Milton's 
Eve,  the  tender  clasp  of  a  mother's  love 
or  the  imperious  repulse  of  righteous 
wrath  !  How  quickly  eyes  and  face  will 
tell  either  the  scathing  flash  of  hate  or 
pity's  melting  mood  !  The  whole  man 
can  thus  be  made  to  speak  with  harmo- 
nious appropriateness  and  graceful  force. 
But  if  so,  this  whole  man  must  be 
taught,  trained,  exercised,  till,  his  native 
faults  removed,  his  native  excellences 
developed,  the  orator  is  unconsciously 
artistic  in  his  action  and  artistically  un- 
conscious of  his  action.  Diligent  teach- 
ing and  patient  perseverance  in  study 
and  in  practice  are  to  this  important  end 
absolutely  indispensable. 

Joined  to  this   expressive  play  of  fea- 


So 

ture  and  of  form  must  be  the  ^.yell- 
developed,  highly-exercised,  carefully- 
educated  power  of  a  trained  and  well- 
ruled  voice.  Nothing  to  the  speaker  so 
important  as  a  flexible,  well-modulated, 
untiring,  full-compassed  voice ;  and 
nothing  more  than  the  voice  repays  care 
and  cultivation.  No  carelessness  as  to 
articulation  or  accentuation  should  be 
for  one  moment  tolerated  by  the  honest 
student  of  this  splendid  art.  In  articu- 
lation strive  to  unite  strength  and 
beauty — the  strength  of  consonantal  dis- 
tinctness and  accurate  pronunciation 
with  the  beauty  of  the  vowel's  round- 
ness, fullness,  and  sweetness.  Strive 
that  your  speech  bewray  3^011  not,  but  be 
cosmopolitan  in  your  pronunciation  and 
intonation.  Seize  the  special  strength 
and  the  special  beaut}'-  of  special  lands 
— the  potent  gutturals  and  well-trilled 


Si 

r's  of  Germany  and  Scotland,  the  deep 
chest-voice  and  niaiily  organ-notes  of 
burly  England,  the  soft,  wooing  sweep 
of  the  Italian's  vowels,  the  clear,  ear- 
catching  syllabification  of  the  Spaniard, 
the  crisp  notes  of  the  Frenchman,  and 
the  Norseman's  consonantal  power.  Aim 
at  a  cultured,  varied  speech  which  shall 
combine  and  harmonize  the  billowy  roll 
of  the  cultivated  and  traveled  Irishman, 
the  low  cadences  and  lute-like  softness 
of  the  high-bred  English  girl,  and  the 
clear,  exact,  sharp  rhythmic  tones  of  our 
own  educated  countrywomen,  and  you 
have  gained  an  utterance  that  will  sway 
by  its  strength  and  woo  and  captivate  by 
its  sweetness.  I  plead  earnestly  for  the 
careful  and  sacred  conservation  of  the 
old  classic,  round-toned  speech  of  cul- 
tured Philadelphians,  which,  with  that 
of  Stamford,  Inverness,  and  Boston, 


82 

has  ever  seemed  to  me  the  perfection  of 
spoken  English. 

Would  you  know  what  is  perfect  in 
action,  study  the  finest  statuary  and  the 
truest  painting ;  and  carefully  mark  how 
a  Milton  or  a  Shakespeare  depicts  his 
varied  characters  in  varied  moods. 
Would  you  know  what  is  perfect  in  tone, 
study  music  ;  train  younown  ear  to  the 
nice  discriminations  ;  hear  and  critically 
watch  the  most  finished  speakers  who 
have  made  an  honest  study  of  this  most 
difficult  but  most  delightful  art. 

All  this  excellence  demands  work  con- 
tinuous and  conscientious.  And  why 
not  give  yourselves  hard  work  ?  Whoso 
takes  up  voluntarily  the  position  of  a 
public  teacher  is  summoned  by  the  im- 
perial voice  of  Duty  to  give  his  best 
thoughts  in  their  best  form  to  that  pub- 
lic whom  he  asks  to  listen  to  him,  and 


33 

therefore  he  should  toil  to  make  his 
speech  forceful  through  truth  like  the 
flooding  sea,  fresh  and  attractive  in  its 
beauty  of  form  like  the  early  dew. 

Make,  then,  ye  ingenuous  youth,  ye 
ardent  students  of  this  wondrous  power 
and  high  art  of  the  eloquent  orator — 
make,  ye  richly-blessed  and  deeply- 
responsible  children  of  our  grand  re- 
public— make  truth  your  first  aim  both 
as  to  matter  and  as  to  manner.  Re- 
member that  speech  of  truth  and  truth 
in  speech  is  the  very  life-blood  of  repub- 
lics. Search  the  histories  of  the 
vanished  democracies  of  classic  or 
mediaeval  da3^s,  and  a  thousand  facts 
will  start  up,  large-bodied  and  clear- 
voiced,  to  testify  that  in  the  breezy  hours 
when  truth  was  dearly  loved,  boldly  told 
and  treasured  more  than  gleaming  gems, 
Freedom's  house,  rock-bound,  defied 


84 

every  storm ;  and  crowding  proofs, 
shameful  and  sickening,  declare  that 
riot,  rottenness,  and  ruin  came  when  the 
truth  was  lost,  and  the  lie,  albeit  fair- 
faced,  smooth-tongued,  glittering  in  garb, 
triumphed.  Children  of  this  grand 
Commonwealth,  remember  that  speech 
without  the  salt  of  truth  is  a  pestilent 
poison,  but  that  speech  strong  in  reality, 
grand  through  truth,  is  a  tree  of  life 
whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the 
nation.  And  we  of  all  folks  must  have 
such  speech.  Peoples  there  may  be  who, 
to  use  Shakespeare's  words,  are  content 
to  wallow  among  the  lily-beds  of  sweet- 
ness, but  sons  of  Pym  and  Hampden, 
of  Grattan  and  Flood,  of  Knox  and 
Melville,  of  Luther  and  Zwingle,  must 
climb  the  steep  mountain-side,  and 
stand  in  the  clear  mid-air,  and  bathe 
in  the  pure  white  light,  and  rejoice  in 


§5 

the  full  breeze — yea,   even  stormy  wind 
— of  reality  and  truth. 

Workers  for  a  splendid  republic,  which 
is — if  ever  one  on  earth  j  ustified  Hobbes's 
definition  of  a  republic — an  aristocracy 
of  orators,  ye  are  passing  out  from  your 
studies  to  be  leaders  in  this  aristocracy 
which  has  produced  its  kings  like 
Patrick  Henry  and  Clay  and  Webster. 
Remember,  teachers  of  America's  Anglo- 
Saxon  youth,  pleaders  before  America's 
Anglo-Saxon  bench,  poets  for  America's 
Anglo-Saxon  hearts,  preachers  to 
America's  Anglo-Saxon  congregations, 
leaders  of  America's  Anglo-Saxon  world 
— remember  that  truth,  clothed  in  cul- 
tured, graceful,  well-spoken  speech,  will 
alone  master  and  mold,  will  alone 
satisfy  and  charm,  will  alone  uphold  and 
advance  that  splendid,  willful,  richly- 
gifted,  keenly-sensitive  folk  with  whom 


86 

ye  have  to  do.  Be  it  yours,  then,  to  re- 
solve, aim,  labor,  that  with  intellect 
aflame,  heart  aglow,  will  astir,  your 
whole  being  alive  and  active,  ye  will 
speak  out  sweetly,  gracefully,  strongly, 
that  truth  God  shall  lend  to  you ;  and 
then  ye  shall  be  burning  and  shining 
lights,  symbols  and  servants  of  Him 
who  was  the  Light  of  the  world  and 
spake  as  never  did  man. 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  IMAGINATION 

IN 

/TAT  TTT'     /\   "OT^    f~\~f^     IHV  "V  ~C3"K?  tT1  <il  <2 T  f~^\ TVT 

±  InLJrL/  ^f-Vrv  ±    vJJr1     ±l/^S^ir^-tX±±^vSC>l^>'rx 

AN  ORATION 

BY 

REV.  A.  J.  F.  BEHRENDS,  D.  D. 
DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 

NATIONAL  SCHOOL  OF  ELOCUTION  AND  ORATORY  UPON  THE  OCCASION 

OF    ITS    FOURTEENTH    ANNUAL    COMMENCEMENT,    HELD  AT   THE 

AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  Music,  PHILADELPHIA,  JUNE  7,  1887 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  IMAGINATION 

IN 

THE  ART  OF  EXPRESSION 

IT  has  not  been  an  easy  matter  for  me 
to  determine  what  niche  the  invited 
speaker  of  this  anniversary  gathering  is 
expected  to  fill.  There  is  to  be  a  gradu- 
ating class  ;  am  I  to  give  them  words  of 
parting  counsel,  in  the  hope  that  if  I 
acquit  myself  creditably  I  may  find 
myself  the  fortunate  recipient  of  a 
diploma?  There  is  to  be  a  prize  contest; 
am  I  called  here  to  grapple  with  these 
athletes  who  have  been  under  training 
for  months  ?  It  occurs  to  me  that  you 
can  have  a  brilliant  foreground  only  by 
having  a  dull  and  heavy  background, 
and  so  you  craftily  ask  us  to  come  here 
and  pose  as  specimens  of  neglected 


9o 

training,  that  we  may  feel  heartily 
ashamed  of  ourselves,  while  you  glory  in 
your  superior  attainments. 

Now  I  must  beg  to  decline  in  advance 
entering  the  list  of  oratorical  exhibition, 
or  occupying  a  professional  attitude.  If 
you  need  anything  more  in  the  line  of 
teaching,  I  beg  to  refer  you  to  a  little 
volume  recently  published,  in  one  of 
whose  brief  chapters  the  whole  question 
of  oratory  is  discussed  with  great  fresh- 
ness and  vigor.  The  book  I  speak  of  is 
English  as  She  is  Taught ;  and  here  are 
some  morsels  of  its  wisdom  :  "  Elocution 
is  opening  the  mouth  wide  open."  "  We 
should  always  breathe  with  the  muscles 
of  the  diaphragm  unless  we  have  catarrh 
or  a  cold  in  the  head."  "  Vowel  sounds 
are  made  by  keeping  the  mouth  wide 
open,  and  consonant  sounds  by  keeping 
it  shut."  "  Force  is  more  loudness 


sometimes  than  others."  "Emphasis is 
putting  more  distress  on  one  word  than 
another."  "  Breathing  is  very  good  for 
reading,  for  when  }TOU  are  reading  you 
can't  breathe  at  all,  and  so  it  is  good  to 
breathe  a  good  deal  before."  That  will 
do.  I  might  as  well  try  to  paint  a  sun- 
beam as  to  improve  upon  these  sugges- 
tions. Under  existing  circumstances  I 
have  deemed  discretion  the  better  part  of 
valor,  and  I  shall  invite  you  to  join  me 
in  a  little  side-excursion,  where  the 
professional  lines  will  not  cross  our 
path. 

Language  is  not  the  only  form  in 
which  man  expresses  his  thoughts. 
Architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  and 
instrumental  music  must  be  added  to  the 
catalogue.  The  tomb  is  a  meditation. 
The  Gothic  cathedral  is  a  prayer  in  stone. 
The  glowing  canvas  is  a  sermon.  The 


92 

flute  and  harp  and  violin  and  organ  move 
us  to  tears  and  laughter.  These  are 
forms  of  expression  which  the  imagina- 
tion creates  and  fills  with  meaning,  and 
whose  message  can  be  understood  only 
by  a  responsive  fancy.  Is  language  an 
exception  ?  It  has  three  forms — the 
written,  crystallizing  in  literature,  in 
prose  and  poetry  ;  the  spoken,  illustrated 
in  conversation,  reading,  and  oratory ; 
and  the  acted,  all  that  is  included  in 
gesture,  the  muscular  movements  of  the 
head,  hands,  and  feet.  Are  any  of  these 
departments  independent  of  the  imagina- 
tion, so  that  perfection  can  be  attained  in 
them  by  attention  purely  to  technique  ? 
Rules  alone,  every  one  admits,  will  not 
make  the  architect,  the  sculptor,  the 
painter,  the  musician ;  though  genius 
never  ventures,  in  its  boldest  flights,  to 
ignore  the  sanctity  of  law.  But  this  per- 


93 

vasive  dominion  of  law  is  only  the  en- 
compassing atmosphere  within  which 
fancy  spreads  its  wings  and  soars  aloft. 
Its  lines  are  the  bauds  and  traces  within 
which  genius  does  its  work,  not  the  secret 
and  source  of  its  energy.  Hence  we  call 
architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  music — 
fine  arts,  because  the  skill  which  is 
chiefly  concerned  in  them  is  that  of  the 
imagination  ;  nor  will  any  one  doubt  that 
poetr}^  belongs  to  the  same  class.  Here 
the  imagination  lays  claim  to  one  depart- 
ment of  language,  and  it  will  be  found 
difficult  to  draw  the  line  where  its  sov- 
ereignty ends.  The  simple  truth  is  that 
language,  whether  written,  spoken,  or 
acted,  is  forcible  and  effective  only  when 
it  is  the  instrument  of  a  living  and 
fruitful  fancy. 

But   I    must   hasten  to   state  what  I 
mean  by  the  Imagination,  and  to  vindi- 


94 

cate  for  it  this  high  dignity.  I  under- 
stand by  it  that  energy  which  the  mind 
possesses  in  creating,  from  the  materials 
of  its  knowledge,  ideal  forms  of  beauty 
and  excellence.  The  primary  form  of 
intellectual  life  is  perceptive  or  cognitive, 
either  by  means  of  the  senses  or  by 
introspection.  The  soul  and  the  world, 
with  the  basic  reality  underlying  and 
uniting  both,  provide  for  us  all  the  ma- 
terials of  our  knowledge.  I  have  a 
knowledge  of  myself,  and  I  have  a 
knowledge  of  the  world,  and  these  are 
the  media  through  which  the  Living 
God  reveals  Himself  to  my  inquiring 
spirit. 

I  do  not  stop  with  fleeting  impressions, 
chasing  each  other  over  the  field  of  con- 
sciousness as  do  the  shadows  of  clouds 
over  mountain  and  vale;  The  mind  of 
man  has  a  registering  and  retentive 


95 

power,  which  we  call  memory,  but  whose 
philosophy  baffles  us.  Neither  the 
physiologist  nor  the  psychologist  has 
succeeded  in  showing  where  or  how  the 
registry  is  kept,  or  by  what  means  it  is 
preserved.  No  less  marked  and  marvel- 
ous is  the  power  which  the  mind  has  of 
availing  itself  of  the  contents  of  this 
voluminous  registry,  making  its  treas- 
ures subservient  to  its  requirements, 
recalling  them  at  will  or  under  the  pres- 
sure of  some  great  emergency. 

And  this  power  of  reproduction  is  itself 
under  the  guidance  of  a  higher  energy, 
which  selects  and  combines,  creating  the 
ideal  types  that  dominate  life  no  less  than 
art.  The  mind  is  something  more  than 
a  photographic  apparatus,  realistically 
reproducing  the  ever-shifting  panorama 
of  events.  It  is  an  artist,  using  these 
crude  materials  of  perception  in  the  crea- 


96 

tion  of  ideal  forms ;  it  is  an  architect, 
hewing  the  rough  boulders  into  shapes 
of  beauty,  and  building  them  up  into 
massive  and  graceful  structures.  And 
this  artistic,  architectoric  power  of  the 
mind,  a  faint  reflex  of  the  creative  energy 
of  the  Divine  Mind,  flinging  the  radiance 
of  an  ideal  world  over  the  world  of  sense, 
is  the  philosophic  or  poetic  imagination. 
Are  there  "  tongues  in  trees,  books 
in  the  running  brooks,  sermons  in  stones, 
and  good  in  every  thing  "?  The  camera 
of  vision  does  not  disclose  them.  Their 
music  does  not  fall  upon  mortal  ears. 
These  are  purely  mental  intuitions,  a 
poetic  drapery  which  the  mind  weaves 
upon  its  own  looms.  Is  all  this  decep- 
tive and  vain  ?  Do  we  play  with  nature 
and  life,  as  children  amuse  themselves 
with  dolls,  dressing  up  the  naked,  homely 
facts  in  the  rags  and  scraps  and  gaudy 


97 

tinsel  of  our  own  fancy  ?  So  some  tell 
us,  and  summon  us  to  reduce  all  thought 
to  the  level  of  a  crude  realism ;  to  be 
content  in  science,  literature,  art,  and 
religion  with  simple  description.  The 
ideal  is  a  delusion  ;  the  visible  is  the  only 
reality.  Beauty,  truth,  and  goodness  are 
only  names,  convenient  for  classification, 
baseless  in  fact.  All  things  are  equally 
fair  ;  there  is  nothing  ugly.  All  things 
are  equally  true  ;  there  is  nothing  false. 
All  things  are  equally  good  ;  there  is  no 
sin.  The  things  that  we  see  are  the  only 
measure  of  existence  ;  the  only  standard 
of  excellence. 

Now,  I  need  not  stop  to  show  at  length 
that  such  a  view  would  rob  civilization 
of  its  choicest  treasures,  and  reduce  our 
calling  to  the  dignity  of  making  mud- 
pies.  Poetry  and  fiction  must  become 


98 

commonplace  and  grossly  realistic.  Zola 
must  supplant  Milton  and  Walter  Scott 
and  even  George  Eliot,  for  the  power  of 
George  Eliot  is  in  her  dominating,  emo- 
tional idealism.  Art  must  leap  from 
heaven  to  earth,  and  henceforth  deal  only 
with  a  faultless  technique,  an  exact  re- 
production on  canvas  and  in  marble  of 
what  the  eyes  reveal.  There  must  be  no 
prudery,  no  intervention  of  false  modesty; 
the  greatest  artist  is  simply  the  most 
accurate  photographer.  Conversation 
must  be  content  with  the  gossip  of  the 
street,  and  employ  its  powers  in  the  faith- 
ful portraiture  of  domestic  and  social 
scandal.  Ethics  and  religion  must  be 
relegated  to  the  limbo  of  outgrown  super- 
stitions. The  land  of  promise  is  certainly 
not  one  that  flows  with  milk  and  honey. 
The  prospect  is  dreary  enough,  and  many 


99 

will  hesitate  to  take  up  the  line  of  march 
into  this  paradise,  where  all  ideals  are 
ostracized  and  disinherited. 

But  the  mind  will  not  consent  to  be 
robbed  of  its  power  and  heritage.  It  will 
continue  to  survey  and  people  its  ideal 
universe.  Not  as  if  the  ideal  is  hostile 
to  the  real,  or  independent  of  it ;  but 
because  the  real  is  fully  understood  only 
under  the  light  of  the  ideal.  The  seen 
and  the  unseen  are  not  two  spheres, 
removed  from  each  other  by  an  infinite 
distance,  or  touching  each  other  only  at 
a  single  point;  they  are  overlapping  circles 
with  the  same  centre,  whence  the  ideal 
sweeps  the  wider  and  the  universally  in- 
clusive circumference.  The  ideals  which 
the  mind  creates  are  not  the  product  of 
an  empty  fancy,  but  the  emergent  reve- 
lation of  eternal  verities.  There  is  truth 
in  Plato's  notion  that  wrhat  we  see  is  only 


100 

an  imperfect  copy  of  an  eternal  idea,  pre- 
existent  and  immortal ;  and  in  the  doctrine 
of  Malebranclie,  that  the  mind  sees  all 
things  in  God.  Light  streams  down  upon 
the  soul  of  man  from  above,  as  truly  as 
it  impinges  upon  the  membrane  of  the 
retina.  Sensation  is  not  our  only  source 
of  knowledge.  Kant  settled  the  great 
debate  by  showing  that  the  notions  of 
space  and  time  and  cause  have  their  birth 
in  the  mind,  and  are  not  imported  into 
it  from  without.  The  mind  has  a  truly 
creative  energy.  It  is  not  a  white  sheet 
of  paper,  receiving  only  passive  im- 
pressions ;  it  sallies  forth  as  an  inter- 
preter under  the  laws  of  thought  that 
are  inherent  in  its  own  constitution.  It 
reads  the  visible  in  the  light  of  the 
invisible  ;  it  discerns  the  ideal  behind  the 
face  of  the  real. 

The  imagination  alone  has  made  pure 


IOI 

mathematics  possible.  Its  lines  and 
curves  are  the  ideal  forms  of  empty 
space.  Nature  has  neither  perfect  lines 
nor  perfect  angles  nor  perfect  circles. 
These  are  purely  mental  products,  ideal 
existences,  to  which  nothing  visible  ex- 
actly corresponds ;  and,  what  is  more, 
man  under  the  guidance  of  these  ideal- 
ized things  can  produce  more  perfect 
specimens  of  each  and  of  all  than  any 
which  nature  exhibits. 

Nor  can  science  do  its  work  without 
the  service  of  the  imagination.  It  pro- 
ceeds from  observation  to  classification, 
and  in  so  doing  at  once  introduces  and 
makes  dominant  a  purely  mental  con- 
cept. The  individual  plant  or  animal  is 
classed  under  the  type  to  which  it  be- 
longs ;  and  types  are  simply  ideal  forms. 
There  is  no  typical  rose,  no  typical  tree, 
no  typical  horse.  The  type  is  a  purely 


IO2 

mental  product,  formed  by  analysis, 
comparison,  and  combination.  It  is  the 
creature  of  the  imagination,  by  reference 
to  which  the  individual  is  measured  and 
judged. 

Science  is  no  less  imaginative  than 
art,  poetry,  and  theology.  It  deals  with 
ideal  forms.  And  therefore  it  is  that  the 
mere  copyist  never  satisfies  the  artistic 
demand.  The  mind  sees  more  than  the 
photograph,  and  therefore  demands  more. 
We  do  not  want  the  unreal,  but  we  want 
the  real  idealized.  You  never  saw  such 
faces  as  those  of  Raphael's  Madonnas ; 
you  never  saw  such  forms  as  those  which 
Phidias  and  Michael  Angelo  carved  into 
marble ;  you  never  saw  such  groups  as 
those  of  Correggio  and  Titian.  These 
are  the  ideals  of  beauty  and  strength, 
and  when  art  abandons  the  ideal  it 
offends  and  degrades  the  aesthetic  taste. 


103 

The  cliarni  and  the  power  of  literature 
are  in  the  ideals  which  it  creates,  as  in 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  in  Dante's  In- 
ferno, and  in  Bunyan's  Pilgrim? s  Pro- 
gress. The  true  poet  is  always  a  phil- 
osopher, who  makes  nature  and  life  ra- 
diant with  the  glow  and  the  glory  of  an 
invisible  world.  You  never  heard  men 
speak,  you  never  saw  them  act,  as  they 
do  in  Shakespeare's  dramas.  There  is 
real  life  and  movement ;  but  the  reality 
is  intensified,  because  idealized.  The 
figures  are  only  the  drapery  of  the 
thought ;  the  good  is  shown  at  its  best, 
and  the  bad  at  its  worst.  The  power  of 
such  a  book  as  Letters  from  Hell  is  in 
the  keen,  calm,  incisive,  exhaustive  anal- 
ysis with  which  it  probes  the  recesses  of 
a  living  and  accusing  conscience. 

Love  lives  in  the  imagination.     We 
say  it  is  blind  because  it  sees   "  Helen's 


104 

beauty  ou  the  brow  of  Egypt."  But 
love  sees  more  than  the  receding  brow  ; 
its  eyes  are  on  the  heart  whose  radiance 
floods  the  dusky  face.  Every  man's 
mother  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  all  women  to  him,  because  no 
other  woman  can  ever  be  to  him  what 
she  was  and  is.  All  this  is  the  work  of 
the  imagination,  but  it  is  not,  therefore, 
imaginary.  The  ideal  is  there,  discerned 
by  the  mind,  and  that  gives  to  every 
physical  defect  a  new  and  fair  perspec- 
tive. So  that  we  can  understand  the  an- 
swer of  the  Irishman  who  was  laughed 
at  because  he  loved  a  cross  eyed  damsel, 
when  he  declared  that  Katie's  eyes  were 
so  beautiful  that  it  was  no  wonder  they 
were  "  thrying  to  look  into  each  other." 
Such  being  the  imperial  rank  and 
scope  of  the  imagination,  the  idealizing 
•power  of  the  mind,  it  is  entitled  to  care- 


I05 

ful  cultivation  by  all  who  would  be  mas- 
ters of  the  art  of  expression.  Language 
is  the  most  subtile  and  plastic  of  all  in- 
struments. Its  mastery  is  the  most  dif- 
ficult of  all  achievements.  A  faultless 
pronunciation  and  a  perfect  syntax  may 
serve  only  to  expose  the  poverty  that 
hides  behind  the  purple.  I  do  not  un- 
dervalue the  physiological  and  the  rhe- 
torical training;  but  there  must  be  some- 
thing to  say,  else  the  saying  it  well  only 
makes  the  speaker  ridiculous.  And  not 
only  must  there  be  something  to  say, 
but  there  must  be  a  proper  perspective 
to  which  the  sentences  are  adjusted. 
Language  is  only  a  means  to  an  end ; 
and  the  aim  of  all  expression  is  impres- 
sion. You  wish  to  describe  a  scene  or 
narrate  an  event  or  tell  a  story;  your 
end  is  gained  only  when  3*011  can  make 
your  listener  see  what  you  have  seen  or 


io6 

hear  what  you  have  heard.  To  do  that 
you  must  be  a  mental  artist.  The 
salient  features  must  be  firmly  grasped 
in  your  own  thought,  and  the  lines  must 
be  drawn  with  a  steady,  rapid  hand. 
There  must  be  no  needless  digression. 
You  must  know  what  to  leave  out,  for 
prolixity  and  wandering  will  produce  in- 
attention and  restlessness.  You  all  know 
of  people  who  act  like  wet  blankets  upon 
a  company  when  they  begin  to  talk,  for 
you  can  never  tell  when  they  will  stop 
nor  what  they  are  aiming  at.  Conver- 
sation is  a  high  art,  in  which  perfection 
and  grace  can  be  attained  only  by  those 
who  are  intent  upon  giving  it  an  ideal 
form. 

Do  a  faultless  pronunciation,  a  studied 
inflection,  and  a  measured  emphasis  in- 
sure good  reading?  The  tone  of  the 
voice  is  of  far  greater  importance — that 


io7 

subtile,  indescribable,  irresistible  quality 
which  is  born  of  true  and  deep  emotion, 
and  which  passes  like  an  electric  shock 
from  the  reader  to  the  hearer.  The 
poem,  or  the  page  of  prose,  must  first  be 
mastered  by  the  reader,  all  its  hidden 
recesses  of  suggestion  explored,  all  its 
depths  sounded,  its  literary  environments 
reproduced  in  fancy  ;  and  only  when  the 
author  has  been  thus  idealized  can  he  be 
successfully  interpreted. 

Need  I  add  that  for  the  orator  or 
debater  this  imaging,  or  grouping  power 
of  the  mind,  is  of  primary  importance  ? 
I  do  not  mean  that  he  must  think  in 
pictures  and  talk  in  similes,  for  some  of 
the  most  effective  speakers  have  been 
men  of  a  simple  and  unadorned  vocabu- 
lary. But  you  can  point  to  no  success- 
ful advocate  or  preacher  or  debater  who 
has  not  been  clear  in  his  analysis,  sure 


loS 

of  his  thought,  definite  in  his  aim, 
marching  toward  it  along  the  most  direct 
lines. 

Of  course,  the  imagination  may  be 
turned  to  dishonest  and  dishonorable 
uses.  The  tongue  may  be  made  to  drop 
manna,  making  "  the  worse  appear  the 
better  reason."  At  110  point  is  there 
greater  need  for  the  guidance  and  check 
of  an  enlightened  and  sensitive  con- 
science. The  higher  the  art,  the  more 
powerful  will  be  its  ministry  for  good  or 
for  evil.  The  imagination  needs  the 
ethical  restraints.  Our  mental  pictures 
must  correspond  to  the  truth  of  things, 
and  in  their  interpretation  to  others  we 
must  guard  against  the  temptation  to 
vanity.  Speech  is  one  of  God's  noblest 
gifts  to  man,  and  it  should  be  kept  firmly 
to  its  divine  intention — to  make  plain 
and  radiant  the  truth,  the  whole  truth, 


and  nothing  but  tne  truth.  For  if  we 
must  part  with  either  beauty  or  truth, 
we  will  hold  fast  to  truth  even  in  a  beg- 
gar's garb.  But  beauty  and  truth  are 
twin-born.  He  who  made  the  world 
strong  has  also  made  it  fair ;  and  we  only 
follow  His  example  when  we  fit  speech 
to  thought,  arranging  with  artistic  skill 
our  apples  of  gold  in  finely  chased 
baskets  of  silver. 


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upon  receipt  of  price. 


THE    PET»W     rrBLISHISUG    COMPANY 

1020    Arch    Street 

Philadelphia 


Debater's    Treasury 

Comprising  a  list  of  2OO  Question,  it-ith  \ntfn  nntt 
Arguments 

By   WILLIAM    PITTENGER 

Author  of  "  Extempore  Speech."  "  How  to  Become  a.  Public 
Speaker,1'  etc. 

Cloth   Binding.   o<  )  Cents 

THE  ability   to  debate  a  question    skillfully  and 
forcibly  is  of  the  greatest  value,  and  has  often 
been  the  passport  to  wealth  and  fame.     In  the 
conflict  of  opinions  prevailing  in  every  department  01 
life,  it  is  most  desirable  to  maintain  our  own  position 
in  the  face  of  all  opposition.     Whoever  cannot  do  so 
may  possess  brilliant  ideas,  may  originate  wise  plans, 
and  may  even  be  eloquent  with  pen  and  tongue,  but 
will  always  have  difficulty  in  securing  the  co-operation 
of  others. 

This  valuable  book  contains  directions  for  organizing 
and  conducting  debating  societies,  most  practical  sug- 
gestions for  all  who  speak,  or  aspire  to  discuss  questions 
in  public,  and  in  addition  gives  a  list  of  200  questions 
on  all  conceivable  subjects  for  debate,  with  arguments, 
both  affirmative  and  negative. 

Sold  by  all  booksellers,  or  mailed  upon  receipt  of 
price. 


THR     PKItJi     PUBLISHING     CO>lPA>iV 

1020     Arch    Street 

Philadelphia 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


SEP  161998 


.S.N  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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